First Published in 1995. This collection of papers was shaped by a variety of colleagues who attended the panel sessions on this topic, organized at the annual meetings of the American Educational Studies Association (1992), the Comparative and International Education Society (1993), and the American Educational Research Association (1994). The inspiration for this volume are the many policy makers, teacher educators and teacher education students around the world who have struggled and continue to struggle about and in programs to prepare teachers formally. Reading this volume will benefit the individual in that they will not only understand better the challenges they face but also be encouraged and empowered to pursue their ‘political’ goals, particularly those aimed at creating a world in which power and resources are distributed in a just and equitable manner.

'What does politics have to do with it anyway? Why can't we just focus on the academic, professional and technical issues in teacher education - how best to prepare future teachers so that they can help children and youth learn and develop?' For Ginsburg and Lindsay, these questions reveal an incomplete understanding both of politics and teacher education. The general purpose of their book is to develop more fully our understanding so that we can ask more fruitful questions. To aid this process the volume combines in a coherent and compelling way the work of scholars with a range of disciplinary approaches, theoretical perspectives and societal experiences. The range of countries covered in this volume - in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and the Pacific - offers insights on the topic that might not otherwise be recognized in case studies of countries that tend to be reported in the literature.

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

During the last 20 years, governments around the world have paid increasing attention to the recruitment, preparation, and retention of teachers. Teacher supply and teacher quality have become significant policy issues, taken up by policy-makers at the highest levels. This is because teachers are now seen by many governments as the ‘lynch-pin’ of educational, economic and social reform. This volume grew out of a recognition by the Editors of the growing significance of teacher education policy and a curiosity about international trends and differences. The book brings together nine papers from leading academics around the world: from the UK (England and Scotland), the USA, Australia, Singapore and Belgium, plus a joint paper comparing Namibia and the USA. Taken together, the papers reveal the complexities and contradictions of international trends. On the one hand, they demonstrate that there is indeed a common direction of travel along the lines encouraged by international bodies such as the OECD. At the same time however, the papers also reveal important differences among countries in terms of how they are addressing common aspirations as well as some apparent contradictions within the policies of individual nations. This book was based on the special issue of Teachers and Teaching.

Teacher Education and the Political is a striking book which addresses the nature and purpose of teacher education in a global context characterised by economic and political anxieties around declining productivity and social inclusion. These anxieties are manifested in recent policy developments such as the promotion of professional standards, the deregulation and marketisation of teacher education and the imposition of performance-related regimes that tie teachers' pay to outcomes in high-stakes testing. The book assesses the implications of such policies for the work of teachers as well as for teacher educators and those undertaking initial teacher training. It is argued that these policy moves can be read as a depoliticising and de-intellectualising of teacher education. In this context, they illustrate how contemporary theory can provide a language for critiquing recent developments and imagining new trajectories for policy and practice in teacher education. Drawing on the work of theorists from Derrida and Mouffe to Agamben and Lacan, this book argues for the need to maintain a space for intellectual autonomy as a critical dimension of the ethico-political work of teachers. Together these ideas and analyses provide examples of the power of negative thinking, illustrating its capacity to unsettle comfortable truths and foreground the political nature of teacher education. Current teachers, teacher educators and school leaders will be particularly interested readers, alongside those concerned with policy in the wider educational landscape.

Teacher Education and the Political is a striking book which addresses the nature and purpose of teacher education in a global context characterised by economic and political anxieties around declining productivity and social inclusion. These anxieties are manifested in recent policy developments such as the promotion of professional standards, the deregulation and marketisation of teacher education and the imposition of performance-related regimes that tie teachers’ pay to outcomes in high-stakes testing. The book assesses the implications of such policies for the work of teachers as well as for teacher educators and those undertaking initial teacher training. It is argued that these policy moves can be read as a depoliticising and de-intellectualising of teacher education. In this context, they illustrate how contemporary theory can provide a language for critiquing recent developments and imagining new trajectories for policy and practice in teacher education. Drawing on the work of theorists from Derrida and Mouffe to Agamben and Lacan, this book argues for the need to maintain a space for intellectual autonomy as a critical dimension of the ethico-political work of teachers. Together these ideas and analyses provide examples of the power of negative thinking, illustrating its capacity to unsettle comfortable truths and foreground the political nature of teacher education. Current teachers, teacher educators and school leaders will be particularly interested readers, alongside those concerned with policy in the wider educational landscape.

Viv Ellis, Lauren Gatti and Warwick Mansell present a unique and international analysis of teacher education policy. Adopting a political economy perspective, this distinctive text provides a comparative analysis of three contrasting welfare state models – the US, England and Norway – following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Arguing that a new political economy of teacher education began to emerge in the decade following the GFC, the authors explore key concepts in education privatisation and examine the increasingly important role of shadow state enterprises in some jurisdictions. This topical text demonstrates the potential of a political economy approach when analysing education policies regarding pre-service teacher education and continuing professional development.