This symposium will explore the shifting landscapes of professional knowledge formation in the post-socialist contexts of Kazakhstan, Slovenia and the Russian Federation. These countries, like other countries in the region, are rooted in the Soviet tradition but also affected by global influences and in particular by Western European processes. The reform of teacher education in a post-socialist context is also tied to the Bologna process, involving a great debate on how best to structure the new curricula to be accredited by the educational authorities and coming to terms with a competence based approach to student learning (Zgaga 2003; Garm and Karlsen 2004). The role of teachers and schools is also changing, and so are expectations of them. A World Summit on Teaching noted that teachers need to help students acquire not only ‘the skills that are easiest to teach and easiest to test’ but more importantly, ways of thinking (creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision making and learning); ways of working (communication and collaboration); tools for working (including information and communication technologies); and skills around citizenship, life and career and personal and social responsibility for success in modern democracies’ (OECD 2011).

Pre-service teacher education sits at the intersection of these two sets of changes – in higher education and in schools. It might be considered pivotal to such reforms. However, in many countries, developing teacher education and altering well-established teacher education programs appear to be slow and difficult processes (e.g. Fullan 2001; Korthagen et al. 2006; Darling-Hammond, 2006). Conventional pre-service teacher preparation programs have often been criticized for being characterised by fragmentations, weak pedagogy, and a lack of articulation among courses and between courses and field experiences, as well as the absence of a set of organising themes, shared standards, and clear goals (Feiman-Nemser 2001; Hollins 2011). While the structures of teacher education programmes vary greatly across Europe (Ostinelli 2009) and Central Asia (Steiner-Khamsi et al. 2007), there are some common features and dilemmas. These include questions about the appropriate ratio of time allocation between subject disciplines, pedagogical and psychological subjects  and teaching  practice; and, recently about multi-lingual as well as intercultural teacher competencies, and the place of research skills and reflective practice in teacher preparation (Price 2001; Garm and Karlsen 2004; Ostinelli 2009; Bridges 2014). Furthermore, many teacher education systems in continental European countries share a vision of ‘developing extensively the professionalism of the teacher within a rigorous but flexible framework’ (Ostinelli 2009). This resonates strongly with the German Didaktik culture, but it should be noted that there is a variety of schools of Didaktik in continental Europe (Hopmann 2007). Similarly, a range of meanings is attached to the concept of Pedagogy. As Robin Alexander (2009, 926) argues ‘pedagogy is the discourse with which one needs to engage in order both to teach intelligently and make sense of teaching – for discourse and act are interdependent, and there can be no teaching without pedagogy or pedagogy without teaching’.

The papers included in this symposium focus on educational contexts in Kazakhstan, Slovenia and Russia and discuss ways in which the requirements of contemporary educational reforms are reflected in developments in pre-service teacher education. In particular they consider the extent to which contemporary notions of reflective practice and classroom action researcher present a challenge to professional knowledge constructed as pedagogy, teaching methods and practicum in the context of contemporary educational reform.

The papers themselves are grounded in different theoretical frameworks and will draw on a range of empirical and analytic research methods. Our approach to the symposium will be interactive and will allow for discussion and debate.

Alexander, R. (2009) Towards a comparative Pedagogy, in Cowen, R. and Kazamias, A.M. (ed). International Handbook of Comparative Education, pp.923-942, Springer, 2009. Bridges, D. (Ed.) (2014) Educational Reform and Internationalisation: The case of school reform in Kazakhstan. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. Darling-Hammond, L. (2006) Constructing 21st century teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 57, 300-314. Feiman-Nemser, S. (2001) From preparation to practice: Designing a continuum to strengthen and sustain teaching. Teachers College Record, 103(6), 1013-1055. Garm, N. and Karlsen, G.E. (2004) Teacher education reform in Europe: the case of Norway: trends and tensions in a global perspective. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 731-744. Hopmann, S. (2007) Restrained teaching: the common core of Didaktik. European Educational Research Journal, 6(2), 109-124. Korthagen, F.A., Loughran, J., and Russell, T. (2006) Developing fundamental principles for teacher education programs and practices. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 1020-1041. Ostinelli, G. (2009) Teacher education in Italy, Germany, England, Sweden and Finland. European Journal of Education, 44(2), 291-308. Steiner-Khamsi,G et al. (2007) Curriculum and Student Assessment, Pre-service Teacher Training. Teacher College, Columbia University Zgaga, P. (2003) Reforming the universities of South East Europe in view of the Bologna process. Higher Education in Europe, 28(3), 251-258