Abstract:

At the core of establishing a European Education Area by 2025, lies the need to improve social cohesion and, “experience European identity in all its diversity” (European Commission, 2017, p. 2). To this end, “giving more support to teachers'' becomes a central objective of the European Education Area (ibid, p. 11), as well as ensuring that “Member States take action to support the teacher educator profession” (European Commission, 2013, p. 6) in recognition of their central role in every stage of the teacher’s career. These quotes from key European policy documents underscore the growing awareness at policy levels of teacher education’s crucial role in developing more equitable education systems. This aligns with recent research that emphasises the potential impact of teacher educators in reducing inequalities and leading transformative change (a.o. Forlin, 2010; Ponet et al., 2023). However, caution is warranted, as research identifies a lack of competences among teacher educators in teaching for equity and diversity (Florian & Camedda, 2020), and perceptions that diversity issues are something beyond their professional expertise, and therefore, professional responsibility (Beaton et al., 2021). Many countries also grapple with a demographic and cultural mismatch between teacher candidates and students in schools (Ladson-Billings, 2005), and insufficient attention to “systemic policies that reproduce inequity in the first place” (Cochran-Smith & Stringer Keefe, 2022, p. 9). This session connects with these observations by mapping and evaluating the current state in four European countries (Germany, Flanders, the Netherlands, Portugal) across two key areas: (1) policies and practices in initial teacher education for teaching pre-service teachers to teach for equity and diversity; and (2) policies and practices for upskilling teacher educators’ equity and diversity competencies. 

The four papers are connected by a cohesive methodological framework, derived from a large-scale EU-funded project. In every country, the policy web around teacher education for diversity was mapped by reviewing and interpreting official documents and policy statements on the national (macro) and institutional (meso) levels. In a second stage, this document analysis was enriched with understandings of what happens ‘on the ground’ (micro-level) via focus group interviews with a sample of programme leaders and pre-service teachers in each country. This systematic and multi-level approach allows for qualitative comparison across countries, hence delivering a unique understanding of cross-national strengths, gaps, and priorities in teacher education for diversity.

Objectives: 

This session aims to map and evaluate the extent to which existing teacher education policies and practices in four European countries address issues of equity and diversity. Specifically, we target three objectives:

1. deliver a rich account of provision for pre-service teachers and teacher educators in the participating countries, with a primary focus on the national (macro) and institutional (meso) levels;

2. identify strengths, weaknesses and gaps in existing provision in each country;

3. define key priorities for the professional development of teacher educators on the European level. 

Session Overview: 

The Chair (10 min) starts by contextualising the objectives of the session, and describing the research approach that guided data gathering and analysis across participating countries. 

Then, presenters from the four countries will deliver focused 10-minute presentations each, offering headline findings related to equity and diversity provision for teacher educators and pre-service teachers. These presentations will include a critical analysis of identified gaps and priorities within their respective contexts.

The Discussant will take the analysis beyond the borders of the individual countries and actively engage the diverse experiences and perspectives present in the audience. Attendees will be invited to contribute their insights, amending and refining findings from the research. The goal is to collaboratively shape and co-create an agenda for the professional development of European teacher educators (40 min).

Beaton, M. C., Thomson, S., Cornelius, S., Lofthouse, R., & Kools, Q. (2021). Conceptualising teacher education for inclusion: Lessons for the professional learning of educators from transnational and cross-sector perspectives. Sustainability, 13(4), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042167 Cochran-Smith, M., & Stringer Keefe, E. (2022). Strong equity: Repositioning teacher education for social change. Teachers College Record, 124(3), 9-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681221087304 European Commission (2013). Supporting teacher educators for better learning outcomes. Last accessed: 27 January 2024, https://www.id-e-berlin.de/files/2017/09/TWG-Text-on-Teacher-Educators.pdf European Commission (2017). Strengthening European identity through education and culture. Last accessed: 27 January 2024, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/communication-strengthe ning-european-identity-education-culture_en.pdf Florian, L., & Camedda, D. (2020). Enhancing teacher education for inclusion. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(1), 4-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2020.1707579 Forlin, C. (2010). Teacher education for inclusion: Changing paradigms and innovative approaches. Routledge. Ladson-Billings, G. J. (2005). Is the team all right? Diversity and teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 56(3), 229-234. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487105275917 Ponet, B., De Clerck, A., Vantieghem, W., Tack, H., & Vanderlinde, R. (2023). Uncovering the role of teacher educators in the reduction of inequalities in education: A critical discourse analysis. Social Psychology of Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-023-09818-7