Section archive - Trends in Teacher Education

In this comparative analysis, the author calls for rethinking how we conceptualize student role and responsibility. This call frames the author's comparison of two programs, which she designed: One program involves secondary students in the preparation of high school teachers and the other program involves college students in the professional development of college faculty. The author then draws on the perspectives of student participants across these two programs to address a series of educational ideals that span K–12 and college contexts: inspiring lasting learning, celebrating humanity and diversity, and engaging in meaningful assessment.

This paper describes the networks of experts involved in the fabrication of indicators and benchmarks supporting the Open Method of Coordination led by the European Commission. In studying international expertise ,the article explores the policy borrowing process and the transfer of knowledge between several agents and institutions at global level.

Thispaper develops the idea that IOs, and particularly the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), have had significant policy influence within the context of education policy development in the European education space. The article focuses on an examination of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the more recent Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in order to discuss processes of problematisation and normalisation of the notions of ‘skills’ and ‘competencies’ by the two major European IOs, the OECD and the European Commission. The article examines the ways both concepts have turned into a policy problem in need of soft governance through new data, standards and policy solutions.

The current paper highlights of the improvement and convergence of the goals for education and training systems in the knowledge and learning society. The critical case of teacher education is then analyzed within the European Higher Education Area. The key European priorities of mobility and intercultural, multilingual competences in teacher education have been taken into account within the framework of an integrated, flexible curriculum.