Year: 2006
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: This paper is about the possibility of reconceptualising and reorganising teacher education.It begins by alluding to the current obsession with testing and standardisation as a means of improving education.A central argument here is that the New Right (neo-liberal and neo-conservative) has manufactured a crisis in education which has had profound consequences for public schools and those who inhabit them, especially in disadvantaged communities.Against this backdrop, the paper considers: (i) the impact of narrowly conceived efforts of government to control teacher's work through teacher-proof curricula, test driven threats and punitive forms of accountability; (ii) the usefulness of the notion of the critical reflective teacher as an antidote to these draconian policies and practices; and (iii) the implications for teacher education programmes and ongoing teacher development.The paper sets out to tackle two key questions: (i) what kind of teachers do we need in these changing times?and (ii) how do we go about producing them?
Author: Barry Down
Institution: Murdoch University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
Funder: Murdoch University
OpenAlex ID: W1899871611