Despite an increasing research interest in subject-specific teacher knowledge, the scientific understanding regarding teachers’ professional knowledge for teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is very limited. This study therefore applies standardized tests to directly assess content knowledge (CK), pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) of preservice teachers for TEFL in Germany from different programs and stages during initial teacher education (during their master’s studies at university and at the end of their induction phase). Structural analysis provides evidence that teacher knowledge with respect to TEFL is a multidimensional construct and PCK is closely related to both CK and GPK. Test scores vary across preservice teachers from different programs and stages, which adequately reflects differences in the learning opportunities they had during teacher education.

In this study, we examine the hypothesis that preservice teachers' teaching motivations change during the first two years of their teacher preparation. A sample of 1,779 student teachers with two time points from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland is used. Findings show that student teachers' intrinsic motivation increases, whereas their extrinsic motivation being more distal to initial teacher education does not change. Against our expectations, their altruistic-type motivation (e.g., the motivation to work with children/adolescents) tends to deteriorate. The change of teaching motivations is influenced by in-school opportunities to learn (teaching practice activities, support by school mentors) and it is more practically relevant in a teacher education context where practical training is given high priority (Austria, Switzerland) compared with a context that heavily focuses on theoretical study (Germany). We discuss implications for teacher education from a comparative perspective and give an outlook for possible future research.

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Statistics show that the increase in the number of refugees to Germany since 2015 was accompanied by an increase in xenophobic hate crimes. We deduced rivaling predictions from intergroup contact and intergroup threat theories that could explain the occurrence of xenophobic hate crimes. By combining structural data of the 402 German districts with the 2015 police crime statistics, we found evidence to support our predictions that aligns with intergroup contact theory: the higher the proportion of foreigners in a district, the lower the prevalence of xenophobic hate crimes. Our analyses further show that the prevalence of xenophobic hate crime attacks was positively related to the total prevalence of registered criminal offenses in a district and was higher in eastern German districts.

The study examines the connection between domain-specific learning opportunities in English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher preparation and preservice EFL teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Using a sample of 444 preservice EFL teachers for secondary schools, it contrasts groups at the end of the 2 phases required in German teacher preparation programs: a theoretical phase at university and a supervised professional internship at a school (practical phase). Specifically, it examines differences in learning opportunities (self-reports) and PCK (paper-and-pencil test results). Findings from regression analysis show that learning opportunity measures substantially predict PCK test scores. The article discusses the effectiveness of EFL teacher preparation programs for preservice teachers' performance on PCK and concludes with possible interpretations and research suggestions.