Teacher education policy in Ireland and the challenges of the twenty‐first century

Changing professional discourses in teacher education policy back towards a training paradigm: a comparative study

“…This policy trend, which is epitomised by the UK's recent White Paper (DfE, 2010), appears like Apple (2001), Garm and Karlsen (2004) and Harford (2010) suggest for recent policies elsewhere, to be one in which teacher education heads towards an ever more centrally controlled narrow technical focus on measurable classroom skills and performance (SOU 2008:109;Mentor et al, 2012;Sjöberg, 2011). In such a context any disciplinary based opportunity for sociological, philosophical, historical or psychological engagement is at best marginalised or at worst virtually eliminated (Lawn & Furlong, 2009).…”

“…However, although we analyse policies from Sweden and England the article may reflect a wider policy context as well. As noted over the past decade, teacher education systems across European countries seem to have converged (Harford, 2010), and core disciplines like the history, sociology, philosophy and psychology of education seem to be waning (Beach & Bagley, 2012;Lawn & Furlong, 2009;Lauder et al, 2009). …”

“…However, as Brante (2010) notes, the relation between the scientific knowledge needs of the profession and professional action is often left here with no further attempts to specify what qualities this knowledge must have. Sometimes the State steps in to explicate this relationship, particularly with respect to professions in the public-sector (Whitty, 2006;Harford, 2010). This involvement can move professional knowledge in different directions, either toward or away from a scientific knowledge of practice befitting a professions education or towards or away from a more standardised, competency based and performative content of a training paradigm (Furlong, 2005;Furlong et al, 2009;Mentor et al, 2012).…”

“…In these investigations, the analysis of the visible aspects of educational systems, such as the organisation of studies, the content of teacher education and the level of public expenditure, indicates that there are significant differences between national systems. However, more detailed analyses at the level of policy formulation and enactment contradict these differences and show that policy changes appear to be quite similar, particularly in recent years, where there has been a tendency toward the globalisation of a neo-liberal educational policy paradigm (Goodson, 2008;Harford, 2010;Beach, 2010). These results underline the need for detailed analyses (Martín del Pozo et al, 2004;Ayme et al, 2009).…”

“…This kind of policy shift is familiar from other countries, such as the US (Apple, 2001;Zeichner, 2010) and the UK (Ball et al, 1994;Gerwitz, 2002), where they also occurred much earlier (Beach, 2010;Mentor et al, 2012), but also other European countries (Riksaasen, 2002;Garm & Karlsen;Goodson, 2008;Harford, 2010). It is a move from knowledge about research practices, outcomes and perspectives in relation to teaching and learning (as described in TCD, TEEC and LUT) back to a content that primarily stresses the value of research products (i.e.…”