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Teachers in the initial stages of their career need support. The quality of their development will depend strongly on the kind of support that is given to them during induction. In this chapter, the author explains how the induction years need to be seen as a distinctive part of the teacher education continuum, building on initial teacher education (ITE) and feeding into continuing professional development (CPD). The University of Malta's Faculty of Education proposed national strategy for induction of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) stresses the need for an effective design of induction programs in terms of the type of activities, the involvement of teacher education institutions and the role of the mentor – all of which can vary, depending on the learning needs of the NQT involved. Such programs will ensure that the support provided creates opportunities to relate back to initial teacher education and to prepare teachers for career-long continuing professional development. The aim of this discussion is to evaluate the current state of professional opportunities available for beginning teachers in Malta, and to discuss an effective approach which facilitates experienced teachers to build their capacities to play a key role, through mentoring, in their new colleagues' professional learning journey.

A growing number of countries have developed Teacher Professional Standards that describe how effective teaching is conceptualized and demonstrated. This article describes how initial teacher education and continuous professional development (CPD) is organized in Estonia, and what role professional standards have in the Estonian context. We demonstrate how the Estonian decentralized preservice teacher education and CPD system supports high quality and flexible teacher professional development throughout their careers. We will also pinpoint the biggest challenges that are currently experienced in Estonia regarding teacher education and professional development. Drawing on the international experiences, we will also discuss how Teacher Professional Standards could be further developed in Estonia to better serve as a guide for both initial teacher education and continuous professional development.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the reform of initial teacher education (ITE) policy in Australia over a 25-year period from 1998 to 2023. It examines policy shifts and movements over this timeframe and aims to better understand the ongoing reforms in the changing contexts of their times.

The paper engages a critical policy historiography approach, focusing on four “policy moments” each linked to a review commissioned by the Commonwealth government of the day. It draws upon the reports and government responses themselves, along with media reports, extracts from Hansard, and ministerial speeches, press releases and interviews related to each of the four policy moments, asking critical questions about the “public issues” and “private troubles” (Gale, 2001) of each moment and aiming to shed light on the complexities of these accounts of policy and the trajectory they represent.

The paper charts the construction of the problem of ITE in Australia over time, highlighting the discursive continuities and shifts since 1998. It traces the constitution of both policy problems and solutions to explain the current policy settlement using a historical lens.

Its value lies in offering a reading of the current policy settlement, based on a close and systematic historical analysis. Where previous research has focused either on particular moments or concepts in ITE reform, this analysis seeks to understand the current policy settlement by taking a longer, contextualised view.

Disciplinary school exclusion has negative consequences in terms of academic achievement, well-being, mental health, and future prospects. Permanent and temporary school exclusions rates in England are much higher than in the rest of the United Kingdom and disproportionately affect students with special needs, from care backgrounds, living in poverty, and from particular ethnic backgrounds. This chapter argues that looking at the issue of school exclusion is another way of looking at issues of inclusion and diversity in schools and that these are central concerns for initial teacher education programs. The chapter illustrates this argument by reporting some of the preliminary findings from the 4-year ESRC funded project The Political Economies of School Exclusion Across the UK (2019–2023) led by the Excluded Lives Research team at the University of Oxford. The main objective of this research has been to develop a home international multidisciplinary understanding of the landscapes of political economies and the experiences and consequences of school exclusion across the United Kingdom.

This chapter is contributed by InFo-TED, the International Forum for Teacher Educator Development. This newly established community brings together people from across the world to exchange research, policy, and practice related to teacher educators' professional learning and development. We define teacher educators broadly as those who are professionally involved and engaged in the initial and ongoing education of teachers. Our contention is that while there is general agreement about the important role played by teacher educators, their professional education is understudied and undersupported. Here, we elaborate the rationale for this initiative, delineate our conceptual framework, and provide examples of steps taken in Belgium, Ireland, and Norway to develop the professional identities and knowledge bases of those who educate and support teachers, and conclude with implications for a scholarly study agenda having to do with research, policy, and practice relating to teacher educators' professional development.

Although part of the United Kingdom, Scotland has its own distinctive education and schooling system, with university-based teacher education preparing teachers for an all-graduate profession. Through the establishment, in 1965, of the General Teaching Council (GTC) as the regulatory body for the teaching profession in Scotland, the General Teaching Council of Scotland became one of the first teaching councils in the world. In the twenty-first century, there have been two major reform programs impacting the teaching profession: A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century in 2001 and Teaching Scotland's Future in 2011. Currently, there is a major reform program underway arising from the recommendations of a further review looking at aspects of education reform and structural and functional change of key national agencies (the Scottish Qualifications Authority and Education Scotland). The reform program will have a number of implications for teacher education. These developments are explored in this chapter which situates them in the wider context of teacher education reform globally and current challenges such as recruitment downturns and retention issues, strengthening research on teacher education and the pressures of increasing accountability.

This chapter examines the professional background, trajectories, and learning of a broad group of teacher educators involved in initial teacher education. The work specifically identifies those who shape the practice of teaching. The authors who are members of the International Forum on Teacher Educator Development (InFo-TED) were key to the creation of InFo-TED, NA (North America), which has used Zoom technology to launch and spread its efforts. Its central purpose is to spur teacher educators and policymakers to embrace new ways to educate all children.

In Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa), bicultural education has reinforced the privilege of settler colonial knowledge with te reo Māori, the language of Indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, used as decorative labels to create a bicultural étagère. Similarly, for inclusive education ableist notions of personhood have maintained approaches that attempt to assimilate the person into the educational hood. In this chapter, research findings from a doctoral case study highlight the intersecting nature of ableism and racism in the foundations of the Aotearoa education system. The author argues that Indigenous knowledge and customs in a bicultural Initial Teacher Education (ITE) program that prepares early childhood educators promote positive constructions of inclusion. Using the tenets of DisCrit and the Alaskan Cultural Standards as tools of analysis, key bicultural practices that support inclusion are identified and discussed. In addition, the inclusive opportunities and the fragility of meaningful intentions are highlighted.

In the context of a highly regulated teacher education system, this chapter offers an alternative vision for a ‘better normal’ for teacher education in England. It foregrounds the need for teacher educators and teacher preparation curricula to promote ‘a way of being’ that enables teachers and teacher educators to have agency, develop as ‘thinking’ professionals and be resilient in an ever-changing policy context.

The birth of a non-racial and democratic South Africa in 1994 created great anticipation that society and education operating under the Apartheid government would be transformed. Education policies and education guidelines based on the South African Constitution now acknowledge the rights of all students from diverse backgrounds and abilities to access quality regular education. Against the background of Goal 4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this chapter analyses initial and more recent policies and implementation guidelines to develop an equitable inclusive education system to identify barriers to inclusive education and possible levers for change.