Special issue: challenging the status quo in teacher education introduction by the guest editor.

This theme issue is designed to bring together the work of a number of teacher educators in order to create a forum through which some of the important issues in teacher education might be highlighted and interrogated. In many ways, it could well be argued that teaching in teacher education suffers from the same forms of isolation that schoolteachers undergo. Hence discussion and debate about the underpinnings of teacher preparation program structure and practice need to be accessible, and to be viewed as a normal and expected aspect of engagement in the field. This issue is one attempt to do just that.

The order of presentation of the papers is intentional. It begins with the work of Hoban who has spent considerable time and effort developing an understanding of the importance of coherence in teacher preparation program structure. Hoban describes his four-dimensional approach, which is well situated within the literature, and thus takes previous research into account in terms of formulating his understanding of the nature of teaching and learning about teaching. Hoban's four-dimensional approach is clearly and carefully laid out to attract attention to the myriad features that need to be balanced in designing teacher education programs, and sets up this theme issue in such a way as to create genuine interest in the nature of the papers that follow.

Haigh and Ward examine the world of the practicum and offer interesting insights into the relationship between supervising teachers, student teachers and university lecturers. Their research illustrates well how questioning the taken-for-granted is crucial to better seeing that which is easily overlooked--or perhaps even ignored--in this aspect of teacher education (which is sometimes pushed to the periphery of thinking and practice in teacher education). In so doing, they open the door to other ways of examining the taken-for-granted (Brookfield, 1995).

Berry introduces the notion of self-study of teacher education practices and illustrates how the problematic nature of teaching about teaching can lead one to view practice in different and challenging ways. Her study draws on the tension of confidence and uncertainty and highlights how self-study involves careful and thoughtful methods that help teacher educators to see their own practice through others' eyes: learning to reframe (Schon, 1983).

Brandenburg also develops an argument for self-study as being central to the work of teacher educators and illustrates how questioning one's own practice is crucial to teaching about teaching in ways that might lead to valuable learning about teaching, both for teacher educators and student teachers. Ma extends these ideas by offering another way into understandings of teaching about teaching through his examination of teaching science through the experimental inquiry approach.

Clarke and Erickson then offer a well argued and carefully designed questioning of teacher educators through their notion of the fifth commonplace and they remind us that what is taken-for-granted covers much more than practice alone. As they more than adequately demonstrate, there is much in the literature that informs teacher education and although the labels may change, the intentions remain the same.

The issue closes with a consideration of placing trust in student teachers' authority of experience (Munby & Russell, 1994) and creating learning opportunities for student teachers to accept a research role in their learning about practice. In so doing, Loughran invites teacher educators to consider new ways of breaking down the predominant transmissive model of teaching about teaching and to engage student teachers in their problems and their concerns and to research possibilities for informing their practice.

Together these papers ask teacher educators to consider how they work to challenge the status quo and to question the taken-for-granted in ways that might lead to genuine learning about teaching and the development and articulation of professional practice in teaching about teaching.

References

Brookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Munby, H. & Russell, T. (1994). The authority of experience in learning to teach: Messages from a physics method class. Journal of Teacher Education, 45(2), 86-95.

Schon, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.

J. John Loughran is the Foundation Chair in Curriculum and Professional Practice in the Faculty of Education, Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton, Victoria 3800. E-mail: [e-mail]