Source: Journal of Education for Teaching, Vol. 42, No. 1, 4–16, 2016
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)
This article aims to provoke debate and discussion about teacher education futures, with particular reference to the interactions between knowledge and technology, within the teacher education community.
Methods
The authors employed futures methodologies based on scenario creation. With a focus on technology and knowledge, the authors interviewed a panel of eight professors of teacher education to draw on its collective wisdom to explore alternative teacher education futures. They analysed the data from these interviews to stimulate the construction of four future teacher education scenarios. Finally, they obtained feedback on the scenarios from teacher educators in Europe and Australia. They revised the scenarios then based on this feedback.
Discussion
In these scenarios, the authors play out how and why changing versions of knowledge and their interactions with technology impact on teacher education. The authors note that in these scenarios, technology is primarily referred to in terms of its relationship to knowledge building and acquisition.
They argued that the scenarios offer a dialectic between the influence of knowledge and that of technology.
They also argue that these scenarios have a practical value in offering alternatives, encouraging debate.
They found that the scenarios have points of agreement and disagreement that provide a framework for dialogue among policy-makers, professionals and communities.
Furthermore, it was found that elements of the scenarios match features of teacher education in different countries. They argue that the future is likely to be an integration of different elements. It seems that the purpose here is to generate dialogue and future research to come to a well-informed consensus.
They suggest that there is a need to design a teacher education that prioritises learning for coming generations of school students. The authors claim that the proposed futures highlight alternative pathways for teacher education. They argue that an alternative pathway leads to use of knowledge in situ; drawn on, developed and created through need.