The second TEPE handbook: Advancing Quality Cultures for Teacher Education in Europe
02 April 2011 - General announcements
The TEPE monograph 'Advancing Quality Cultures for Teacher Education in Europe' has been written and published as a new contribution of the Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) Network. The monograph contains contributions to the third TEPE conference, held from 18 to 20 May 2009 at Umeå University in Sweden.
The first part covers some broader issues for Teacher Education in Europe, like the Bologna process and the quality of teacher educators. The second part deals with regional perspectives (Nordic countries and Balkan) and systemic issues (like quality assurance). The third part addresses some specific aspects of teacher education in Europe.
The final chapter of the book covers the conclusions and recommendations of the conference: The conference called for:
- Recognition of the importance of a long term and integrated view of teacher education that includes initial teacher education, induction and continuing professional development and that also recognises the need to support teachers as life long learners throughout their careers.
- Greater recognition of the need for teacher education to be based on a balance and interconnection between a strong research-based curriculum in Higher Education and strong support in the process of identity formation of teachers in practice.
- Greater attention to be given to strengthening the professionalism of teacher educators as a task for the professional community of teacher educators in the first instance, but also supported by incentives from policy makers.
- The development of a common framework of quality indicators for Teacher Education in Europe.
- Three way communication between researchers, policy makers and TE practitioners: researchers in TE, policy makers and decision makers at the institutional, local and national level and TE practitioners at the institutional level and as mentors in schools.
- An emphasis on systemic quality enhancement at the institutional level (the Bologna Process stressed that quality is the primary concern of higher education institutions), comprehensive national action plans for implementing the agreed European principles (within the EU Education and Training 2010) as well as national action plans regarding the “social dimension” (stressed in the recent Leuven / Louvain-la-Neuve communiqué of the Bologna ministers).
- The development of joint research projects in order to advance research in and on Teacher Education and in particular to promote quality in Teacher Education.
The TEPE book is online available through the TEPE-website.