The idea of teacher education for social justice, or social justice-oriented teacher preparation, is common in both research literature and in program narratives across Europe and beyond. However, this has long been criticized as something so ill-defined that it is difficult to move beyond rhetoric and into reality. Cochran-Smith (2010) argues that ‘few who write about teacher education and social justice make the underpinning political and philosophical roots explicit, and that this increases the likelihood that it [social justice] exists in name only or that it is diluted, trivialised or co-opted’ (p. 445). In this paper, I propose that the notion of ‘socially progressive teacher education’ holds promise as an alternative, wider framing that is both defensible conceptually and also capable of being applied in practice.

Underpinning the desire to conceptualise such an approach to teacher education is the acknowledgement that education in general, and teacher education in particular, cannot ever be neutral, despite some claims to the contrary. In striving to make philosophical underpinnings explicit, the paper first outlines three distinct, but linked ideas that influence how socially progressive teacher education might be understood and practiced: 1) social progressivism as a political ideology; 2) pedagogical progressivism as an educational movement; and 3) social, environmental and epistemic justice as ethical imperatives. It considers the key tenets of each before synthesising these ideas and applying them to teacher education.

While social progressivism urges us to draw on knowledge and understanding in support of the common good, I heed Biesta’s (2009, p. 35) warning that ‘whilst it is always advisable to use factual information when making decisions about what ought to be done, what ought to be done can never be logically derived from what is.’ He goes on to assert that all judgements on education are to an extent value-based, made in relation to what is deemed (often implicitly) to be desirable. However, if we simply accept that any version of ‘good’ is acceptable, then we run the risk of allowing social, environmental and epistemic injustices to continue unchecked. Particularly in the context of education, it is important to be able to accept that somethings are innately not good, regardless of respect for other people’s values and beliefs. This is where the concept of social justice, rather than the slightly more nebulous notion of ‘social good’ is key. The key message here is that from a socially progressive perspective, decisions about reform, even if based clearly on new knowledge, should not be made without reference to context. I argue that this slightly wider conceptualisation for teacher education as socially progressive continues to put social justice front and centre (whilst also giving attention to environmental and epistemic justice), but that it does that in a way that enables us to consider the underpinning aim of social justice as well as the pedagogical means of working in a socially, environmentally and epistemically just way. In short, it provides a way in for the wide range of stakeholders in teacher education to be able to negotiate both conceptual and practical struggles, across a range of different European and international contexts.

The paper concludes with an illustration of the process to-date in my own university where we have sought to take this initial conceptualisation and begin to enact the vision through a series of incremental, concrete steps. It acknowledges the challenge of negotiating ‘global pedagogic governance’ (Cobb & Couch, 2018, p. 41) evident through the influence of bodies such as the European Commission and the OECD, whilst also attending to the local through a deep appreciation of context.

This is a conceptual paper which adopts a critical orientation to the conceptualisation and enactment of teacher education. It draws on three key sets of ideas, namely: 1) social progressivism as a political ideology; 2) pedagogical progressivism as an educational movement; and 3) social, environmental and epistemic justice as ethical imperatives. Key tenets from these three sets of ideas have been elicited from the literature, and then interpreted within the domain of teacher education. From this synthesis, four overarching themes emerged. The paper then takes this initial conceptualisation and illustrates by way of an illustrative case study, how the ideas were translated into five principles around which a series of ‘stimulus questions’ were created to act as a conduit for colleagues’ to engage in debate about meaning and enactment.

The paper illustrates a process of conceptualisation, leading to the articulation of a set of principles, and then demonstrates how these principles were made accessible and debateable through a set of linked stimulus questions. Importantly, the process was set within a desire to create a vision which would: • Act as a compass to support our decision-making about our teacher education work • Be able to articulate the uniqueness of a teacher education experience in our university • Create an aspiration for teacher education in line with School and University visions, and against which we can hold ourselves accountable Kohn (2008) says that ‘a school that is culturally progressive is not necessarily educationally progressive’, and presumably the same holds true for teacher education. That is, while the values and aspirations espoused might be socially progressive, this does not necessarily mean that the program will adopt a pedagogically progressive approach. The three prongs of the conceptualization put forward here are therefore co-dependent and all equally important. The socially progressive political ideology serves to make values explicit and to position reform in favour of social good as a key tenet. Pedagogical progressivism then serves as a blueprint for the design of the learning approaches in the teacher education program(s) prioritising learner-centred approaches and collective, place-based problem-solving. Driving all of this is an explicit privileging of social, environmental and epistemic justice serving as an ethical, conceptual and practical compass.

Biesta, G. (2009). Good education in an age of measurement: on the need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 21(1), 33-46. DOI 10.1007/s11092-008-9064-9NO9064 Cobb, D.J. & Couch, D. (2018). Teacher education for an uncertain future: Implications of PISA’s global competence (pp. 35-48). In D. Heck & Ambrosetti, A. (Eds.). Teacher education in and for uncertain times. Singapore: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8648-9_3 Cochran-Smith M. (2010). Toward a Theory of Teacher Education for Social Justice. In: Hargreaves A., Lieberman A., Fullan M., Hopkins D. (Eds.). Second International Handbook of Educational Change. Springer International. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2660-6_27 Kohn, A. (2008). Progressive education: Why it’s hard to beat, but also hard to find. Independent School, Spring 2008. https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/progressive-education/