As a recent European report identifies, across Europe there is ‘a trend towards re-modelling pre-service teacher education to ensure that student teachers learn in school settings so that they can get into real classrooms early in the programme, spend more time there and receive stronger support in the process.’ (European Commission 2015:4). This pan-European ‘turn to the practical’ (Furlong & Lawn, 2011) or ‘practicum turn’  (Mattson et al., 2011) mirrors wider international trends, particularly in Anglophone nations, to increase the amount of practical training and learning in schools, including - but not limited to - traditional school-based practice (the practicum) in teacher education.

Given the variety in the architectures of teacher education trans-nationally and the oft-differing cultural and educational values which underpin that variety, there are inevitable divergences between nations in what this trend means, how it is being implemented and what pedagogies are used by teacher educators in universities and mentors (or school-based teacher educators) to prepare their student teachers more effectively for the practicum. In this symposium our overall research questions are: what are some of the ‘pedagogies of preparation’ in use by teacher educators and/or mentors in four different countries: Australia, Canada, England and the USA? And which forms of these pedagogies, deployed by which teacher educators, might best support and develop student teacher learning during the practicum?

The first two papers look at emerging pedagogical roles and practices drawn on by mentors during the practicum. These educators are increasingly taking up major pedagogical roles and implementing rich pedagogical practices. The other two papers consider pedagogies of preparation for the practicum, as used in the university by university-based teacher educators. The value of this practical component within the university has arguably been devalued in current discourses of practice, to the detriment of holistic student teacher learning.

In presenting and analysing the pedagogical practices and roles used by these different educators, our objectives are: 1) to learn more about what might be termed more ‘school-focused’ forms of teacher education trans-nationally by exploring the divergences across these four Anglophone nations – one in Europe and three beyond it; 2) to consider the relevance which our findings might have to understanding and developing effective preparation for the practicum – by all types of teacher educators - in other national contexts, particularly those in Europe.

We draw on a variety of theoretical perspectives including concepts from educational philosophy about reflective practice and the theorization of practice, epistemological challenges about what knowledge is in teacher education, sociological and psychological concepts of identity formation and concepts of space/place from both social geography and education. Three of the papers are based on empirical studies, using a variety of different qualitativeresearch methods,including case study, discourse analysis and the theorization of practice as a form of self-study. One paper is theoretical in nature, drawing on three types of international research literature.

Our symposium indicates different emphases including very different types of pedagogies in use by different types of teacher educators located in schools and / or universities, but key continuities in those pedagogies are commitments to high quality, relevant and – crucially - research-informed perspectives on practice, which support and develop both experiential and research-informed learning for student teachers during the practicum.

The symposium contributes new knowledge on research-informed pedagogies for preparing student teachers to work in schools, whether these pedagogies are devised and implemented by university-based teacher educators or mentors (school-based teacher educators). We intend that these papers will be published as journal articles after the ECER 2016 conference.

References for overview and individual papers Boylan, M. and Woolsey, M (2015) Teacher education for social justice : mapping identity spaces. Teaching and Teacher Education, 46, 62-71. Carr, W. (1995). For education: towards critical educational inquiry. Buckingham: O.U.P. Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (1999). Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teacher learning in communities. Review of Research in Education, 24, 249-305. European Commission. (2015) Strengthening Teaching in Europe: new evidence from teachers. Brussels: EC. Feiman-Nemser, S. (2001). Helping novices learn to teach; Lessons from an exemplary support teacher. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(1), 17-30. Furlong, J. and Lawn, M. (eds) (2010) Disciplines of Education: their roles in the future of education research, London: Routledge. Massey, D. (2005) For Space. London:SAGE Mattsson, M., et al. (eds) (2011) A Practicum Turn in Teacher Education, Rotterdam: Sense. Murray, J. (2002). Between the chalkface and the ivory towers? CORE volume 26. 3. pp1-530 Schon, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner. New York: Basic Books. Somerville, M. et al. (2011) Place Pedagogy Change. Rotterdam: Sense Publishing. Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group. (2014). Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers. Canberra: Department of Education. Zeichner, K., & Liston, D. (2014). Reflective teaching: an introduction. New York & London: Routledge.