This book explores policy and practice in Teacher Education in South Africa and their implications for the future. It arises from the work of the Multi Site Teacher Education Research Programme (MUSTER) co-ordinated by the University of Sussex in five countries, of which South Africa is one. Teacher education in South Africa is in transition. The first wave of educational reform rightly focused on the need to develop a post-apartheid school curriculum and the new structures that were needed to support different approaches to learning. Teacher education was made a Provincial competence and left largely untouched until new norms and standards and a regulatory framework began to be developed.

Conflicts in schools over race, fees or language frequently make headlines in South Africa. Such conflicts reflect the multifaceted issue of learner diversity, encompassing racial, class, gender, religious, linguistic, physical and other differences. The need to handle such differences in equitable ways poses new challenges for teachers and teacher education. How are teacher education institutions preparing students for teaching in schools that are different from the ones they experienced as learners? What kinds of skills are they providing to enable teachers to deal with diversity and difference amongst learners.

This book explores the current landscape of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in primary schools in South Africa. Considering recent policy directives and initiatives, it highlights the dilemmas of ITE for the primary school and gives a thorough account of innovations and initiatives to improve ITE. The book presents what works best for quality preparation of teachers in the Global South, where many children rely on their teachers and school life to break the cycle of poverty. Chapters draw on evidence from workplace learning, pre-service study, and primary school teacher education policy to highlight examples of promising change in teacher education in South Africa, addressing the clichés of "theory versus practice" head-on. This book successfully brings out the challenging aspects of teacher education for childhood learning which has otherwise been regarded as the softer option for a career in education. This book will be of great interest for academics, researchers, and post-graduate students in the fields of teacher education, African education, educational policy, international education, and comparative education.

This edited volume focuses on Curriculum scholars' critical reflections on teacher education (TE) within South Africa to offer insights into critical considerations for the socio-economic, transformational, social and environmental justice and decolonization challenges that the country faces. Much of the literature on teacher education takes on a policy and practice focus to the exclusion of deep and fundamental curriculum questions on what is teacher education for, for whom, where and who decides. Within South Africa, the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualification (MRTEQ) forms the official policy that informs teacher education curriculum and certification to become a teacher. This volume raises critical and complicated questions for teacher educators and curriculum scholars to inspire a deeper understanding of teacher education beyond a set of parochial policy prescribed modules/courses that one needs to take to become a professional teacher.

This volume examines Educational Change in South Africa, a country undergoing rapid social and political change, and situated geographically, historically and culturally in the South.

This is the story of a science teacher and her work in an over-crowded and under-resourced township secondary school in contemporary South Africa. While set firmly in the present, it is also a journey into the past, shedding fresh light on how the legacy of apartheid education continues to have a major influence on teaching and learning in South Africa. The book has a compelling story line with extensively referenced notes at the end of each chapter. It is intended for a wide audience, which includes general readers, policy makers, teacher-educators, researchers and, most importantly, practitioners in the field. For, while it reminds us of the powerful constraining role that both context and students play in mediating a teacher's practice, it also attests to the power of individual agency. As such it is a celebration of the actions of an ordinary teacher whose willingness to leave the well-worn paths of familiar practice stands as a beacon of possibility for contexts which seem, so often, to be devoid of hope.