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This chapter introduces a theoretically grounded pedagogical procedure of moral argumentation that aims to facilitate student teachers’ learning of moral competencies during teacher education. Despite the essentiality of the moral aspects of teaching, they often remain implicit in the curricula and pedagogical practices of teacher education. Thus, there is a clear need to bring these aspects to the foreground and create possibilities for student teachers to elaborate them thoroughly during teacher education. Authentic cases capturing classroom realities and moral dilemmas at school as well as their systematic analysis and reflection from various lenses form the core of the procedure. Based on the results of the use of the procedure in the practice of teacher education, it promisingly fulfills the aims to demonstrate the moral core of teaching and teacher’s central role in it for student teachers.

This chapter considers teacher learning in inclusive co-teaching contexts, specifically the moral dimensions embedded within it. The chapter draws data from a study focusing on teachers’ perceptions of their learning during co-teaching in inclusive classrooms, and salient moral features embedded in co-teaching situations. Data from joint stimulated recall interviews conducted with three co-teacher pairs illuminate that teachers perceived both possibilities and challenges in key learning situations during co-teaching in inclusive classrooms. In these situations, it is possible for teachers to articulate and extract their guiding beliefs toward salient moral aspects in inclusive teaching in order to extend their understanding and revise their inclusive teaching practices. This chapter suggests that co-teaching is a promising practice for promoting inclusive classroom communities where teachers and students can learn together.

Teaching is seen as a morally significant endeavor, but there is a lack of clarity about the entire domain. While teachers usually do not develop a refined professional knowledge base or vocabulary of the moral work of teaching (Sanger, 2017) during pre- and in-service teacher education, there is a need to explore more in detail what kind of expertise is required and employed in the moral work of teaching, and how the components of that expertise are related to each other. The purpose of our theoretical chapter is not to present the “foreground,” that is the results of “what works” but instead to highlight the “background” of teaching profession. We note that the complexities of teaching can be structured through the relational viewpoints of ethical principles, moral judgments, and virtuous policies. From these three standpoints, which often appear separate and disconnected, we try out a constructive synthesis. Our framework denotes that teaching is a peculiar kind of relationship that brings with it special ethical guidelines, moral judgments, and constant considerations of how to realize human well-being in the real-world dilemmas of teaching.

This chapter provides a synthesis of the literature having to do with the moral matters of teaching. It is organized around three themes: (a) teacher’s professional ethics and values, (b) teacher’s moral sensitivity, action, and judgment, and (c) school ethos and community. Each theme is first dealt with separately. Then, the themes are related to one another to show the interconnectedness between and among them. Exemplars in this work are drawn from the authors’ and others’ substantial body of research conducted in Finland. The research findings, however, have an applicability that extends beyond national borders. The intent of this work is to stimulate discussion and to advance what is known about the moral nature of teaching through using a range of research methods and conducting studies in live school settings.

Teacher education pedagogies face the complex challenge of attending to standards of professionalism while being sensitive to the local changing needs of professional learning. Encounters between these two aspects of professional work are manifested, for example, through the relations between innovative, “against the grain” pedagogies and standardized criteria and accountability to policy issues and measurement. This chapter characterizes various “contact zones” across participants, contexts and contents, called for by the four categories of pedagogies (working with multimodalities, partnerships and community learning, teacher assessment, and vehicles for dissemination) that comprise this volume of International Teacher Education: Promising Pedagogies (Part C). The four categories of pedagogies join five earlier categories of pedagogies (teacher leadership, diversity, family, social justice, and technology), which are found in International Teacher Education: Promising Pedagogies (Part B). These go in with yet another five categories of pedagogies (teacher selection, reflection, narrative knowing, teacher identity and mediation and mentoring), which are found in International Teacher Education: Promising Pedagogies (Part A).

This scholarly work analyzes the previous 17 chapters in the International Teacher Education: Promising Pedagogies (Part C) volume. The purpose of the analysis is to distill the essence of what constitutes promising international teacher education pedagogies and how those pedagogies can best be shared. The chapters are reviewed according to the sections in which they appeared: pedagogies of working with multimodalities; pedagogies of partnerships and communities; pedagogies of teacher assessment; and vehicles for teacher education research, and dissemination. Key knowledge contributions from each chapter are emphasized. Similarities between the featured pedagogies are also highlighted. Finally, overarching themes are pinpointed.