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The current structure and content of higher pedagogical education in Russia is a unique interweaving of the traditions of the historical past with post-Soviet and modern reforms of the last 30 years. They reflect the complex process of development of the national teacher training system, each stage of which not only built on the previous one, but also brought something new and more perfect, without denying the previous experience. The current situation in teacher education in Russia is quite diverse and original. Teachers have the opportunity to study in specialised secondary, higher and professionally oriented postgraduate education programmes.

This chapter presents modern higher pedagogical education in Russia as a rather complex and multilevel system. This required a rather in-depth coverage of state policy, structure and content of Federal State Educational Standards. On this basis, the authors planned to achieve a full understanding of the phenomenon of the combination of centralisation and decentralisation of the teacher training process in Russia, where the existing legal and content frameworks nevertheless leave ample opportunities for variability and autonomy in the formation of educational programmes at universities and institutes.

This chapter examines the University of Connecticut (UConn) Neag School of Education's efforts to improve the recruitment of students of colour through an Early College Experience (ECE) Programme. During the pandemic, the School of Education and the ECE Programme collaborated to train and certify high school teachers to instruct the UConn's lower level undergraduate courses. The programme exposed many students of colour to teaching as a career.

This chapter critically examines the provision and underlying partnership structure of a range of online and distance teacher preparation courses introduced in Scotland from 2014 to 2018. These courses reflect a period of teacher shortages and were developed by Universities in partnership with local authority employers, particularly in rural areas. This chapter explores the geographic and policy context before analysing the national and local policy drivers that led to the expansion of online and distance provision. The structures of a range of programmes introduced by the University of the Highlands and Islands, the University of Aberdeen and the University of Dundee are considered in detail. This is reflected against the national policy drivers of teacher shortages in rural areas, the challenges of recruiting secondary science and technology teachers and the introduction of national funding from the Scottish Government for ‘New Routes into Teaching’. The Government aim of recruiting highly qualified graduates into teaching as a career is contrasted with the local requirement to support a wider more equitable access to a teaching career, for people already committed to living in rural Scotland. This chapter concludes with an analysis of the processes and technology utilised in these programmes before considering the future of online and distance teacher preparation in Scotland.

The system of higher education in the Russian Federation due to the high share of fundamental training is focused on ensuring the foundation of permanent stability of the graduate, while the system of additional professional education is obliged to take into account the current state of the educational services market, which is characterised by globalisation, diversification, digitalisation and international integration. Therefore, the main focus of the modern system of additional professional education of teachers is the creation of favourable organisational, content, procedural and other conditions that contribute to the professional development and creative self-realisation of teachers, taking into account their individual needs and abilities. In this section, based on the analysis of normative documents and innovative experience of professional development and retraining of education specialists, the goals and objectives, structure and content, main development trends and modern training technologies, features of the internal system of quality assessment of additional professional education of teachers in Russia are disclosed.

Two of the most important trends in higher education have been the emergence of online learning and efforts to internationalise the curriculum and student body. While most universities embraced both these trends, insufficient attention has been paid to how the two approaches might be mutually supportive. Online education offers the opportunity to bring together students living in different countries in common courses and programmes, but cross-border enrolments remain low and new models and approaches are needed to build educational offerings that bring students and faculty from different countries together in sustained educational engagement online. This paper highlights a case study of an innovative blended double degree business masters’ program between Royal Roads University (RRU) in Canada and the Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) in Austria that allows mid-career, blended learning students to build international competencies and networks while continuing to work full-time. Through this double degree program, students can complete a Master of Global Management (MGM) at RRU and an MBA at MCI in approximately 24 months. Mid-career students have traditionally had limited opportunities to participate in an international education due to work and family constraints, but the pairing of two blended programmes creates an opportunity for these students to engage in a rich cross-cultural learning community. The paper highlights the challenges of integrating online learning into internationalisation strategies and explains how double degree programmes such as the RRU-MCI collaboration provide advantages that help overcome the challenges associated with online programmes that enrol students from different countries.

This chapter explores the work of a library adult literacy programme working closely with other education providers in Risdon Prison in Australia. The Literacy Service operates as a form of outreach to the prison population who have low literacy levels and are not yet engaged in education or using the prison library. In this context, it is a form of radical inclusion, creating opportunities for those most disadvantaged to access learning. The library services help to create a literate environment for prisoners and provide opportunities for prisoners to increase their engagement in lifelong learning and everyday literacy practices, giving them a better chance of developing their literacy skills. Strategies explored for engaging this cohort include a range of creative projects, small group work and one to one tutoring. The Literacy Service has developed best practice approaches to deliver effective literacy support using strategies and approaches that align with research and these are adapted for work in the prison context. The Literacy Service approach is aligned with the wider prison goals of rehabilitation and reintegration and the chapter explores a theory of change to identify how prison education may be most effective in supporting rehabilitation (Szifris, Fox, & Bradbury, 2018). The library Literacy Service offers safe spaces, opportunities to create social bonds, reshape identity, engage in informal learning and set new goals – key elements found to be critical in rehabilitation. The Prison Library Impact Framework, developed by Finlay and Bates (2018), connects these elements with the theory of change model to propose a tool that may be useful to evaluate prison library services in the future.

This chapter analyses the structure, content and development trends of the system of postgraduate teacher training in Russia. It is shown that the system of postgraduate training in Russia has a long history and consists of postgraduate and doctoral levels. The trends that influenced the dynamics and essence of the modernisation processes of Russian postgraduate education are revealed. The content, logic and shortcomings of the not quite successful attempt to standardise the process of training higher-qualified personnel in postgraduate studies are substantiated. Changes in the nomenclature of scientific specialties, which are used to award academic degrees in pedagogy, are revealed.

The main part of the material is devoted to the general characteristics of the current pedagogical postgraduate programmes in Russia. It describes the peculiarities of the admission procedure and the organisation of training for graduate students, the nuances of the choice of supervisor, the definition of the thesis topic, and the current, intermediate, and final certification of graduate students. The essence of co-doctoral studies as a form of dissertation preparation is revealed. The requirements for the preparation, design and defence of candidate dissertations in pedagogy are outlined. The form of advanced training of scientific and pedagogical staff for the preparation of doctoral dissertations is briefly described.

The Ghana chapter on special education begins with the history of service provisions for persons with disabilities. It includes information on educational and rehabilitation services, special schools and integrated education. Detailed data is related concerning prevalence and incidence rates and special needs among the Ghana population. This is followed by a comprehensive section on regular and special education teacher roles, expectations, and training. An important aspect of Ghana’s special education is its movement towards inclusive education. The support for this movement comes from the Ministry of Education’s policy, namely, The Education Strategic Plan (ESP), which adopts inclusive education and promotes it as the future special education direction for the country. The chapter provides detailed information on the issues related to the implementation of the ESP plan, four models that have been developed for inclusive education, the progress and effort that Ghana has made towards inclusive education as well as significant challenges that are present.