In the last five years, major attempts to revamp Russian education have led to the re-definition of teachers’ work and teachers’ knowledge based on globally-circulated policy packages (i.e. Barber & Mourshed, 2007; Mourshed, Chijioke, & Barber, 2010). Currently, the Ministry of Education is piloting projects of teacher education modernization reform, which is accompanied by the introduction of a new professional standard of teachers’ work and new school standards. Drawing on the findings of a multi-sited critical ethnography of two teacher education universities and Russia’s policy-making hub in Moscow, I analyze different conceptions of teacher knowledge that emerge in the new policy documents and are adhered to in teacher education programs. I employ Bernstein’s (2000) theory of pedagogic models and writing on the changing teacher professionalism (Gewirtz, Mahony, Hextall, & Cribb, 2009) to show the paradoxes of a teacher education reform that uses the knowledge economy discourses but diminishes the role of teachers’ knowledge and conceptualizes teacher’s work as a craft based on practical competences. I contrast this position with the discourses of teacher knowledge predominant in teacher education institutions which present disciplinary knowledge and subject knowledge preparation as key foundations for effective teacher practice. Differences in conceptions of teacher knowledge create struggles and contestations amidst various groups. Amidst these contestations, various actors agree that the knowledge of pedagogy is necessary for teachers to shape future generations through the upbringing (vospitanie) they provide. They also agree that this knowledge is important for professionals in a wide array of social fields who have to “influence” people, facilitating the spread of pedagogization of society at large (Bernstein, 2000). The contribution of this study lies in shedding new light on the struggles over teachers’ knowledge and their professional roles in post-socialist societies aspiring to build knowledge economies.  

Barber, M., & Mourshed, M. (2007). How the world's best-performing systems come out on top. London: McKinsey & Company. Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control, and identity: Theory, research, critique. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Gewirtz, S., Mahony, P., Hextall, I., & Cribb, A. (Eds.). (2009).Changing teacher professionalism: International trends, challenges and ways forward. London: Routledge. Mourshed, M., Chijioke, C., & Barber, M. (2010). How the worlds most improved school systems keep getting better. London: McKinsey & Company.