Introduction to the Special Issue: How to educate a nation’s teachers. Debating quality initial teacher education for today and for the future

Constructing the problem of initial teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand: policy formation and risk, 2010-2018

“…Many smaller scale empirical studies have been conducted and the Waikato Journal of Education (WJE) has taken a leading role in publishing articles on these through a series of special editions following Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand (TEFANZ) conferences and fora during the period concerned. The 2010 collection reported on issues of ITE design and practice (McGee & Cooper, 2010), the 2013 special edition raised questions of ITE as a profession (O'Neill, Hansen, Rawlins, & Donaldson, 2013), and in 2017 the very question of how best to educate a nation's teachers was the focus of the WJE special edition (Cooper, Sexton, & Gunn, 2017) but we found little evidence of such works informing the debate.…”

“…For example, the practicum, its assessment, and student teacher support are addressed (Aitken, Corkery, & Jones, 2017;Aspden & McLachlan, 2017). Issues of ITE design are considered in the contemporary literature as well (Bell, Robertson, & Norsworthy, 2017;Cooper, Sexton, & Gunn, 2017;Heng, Quinlivan, & du Plessis, 2019). Smaller-scale studies into elements of practice and pedagogical technique continue to proliferate and add considerable value to the development of knowledge for teacher education practice (see, for example, Agnew & Gunn, 2019 on health education, including within ITE; Felis-Anaya, Martos-Garcia, & Devis-Devis, 2018 on physical education, including within ITE; and Trevethan, 2017 on student teacher mentoring).…”