A pedagogy for initial teacher education in England

Abstract

This paper promotes the importance of a pedagogy for teacher education and proposes a pedagogical framework for teacher education in England. The pedagogy of teacher education consists of those strategies intentionally employed which facilitate teachers in learning how to teach. With one or two notable exceptions the pedagogy of teacher education in England has been under researched and under theorised, and this has led to undervaluing its importance at a time of radical change in policy. At a time of increasing focus on ‘school-led’ teacher education in England, this paper argues that in the context of the current policy environment it is more important to establish the how of teacher education than where it takes place. Models of teacher education and writings from America and continental Europe are used to inform a pedagogical framework that can underpin teacher education wherever it takes place. In particular Korthagen and Kessel’s (1999) use of episteme and phronesis are appropriated to develop a generic framework that is exemplified through a case study from initial teacher education in music. It is argued that the pedagogical processes of the framework, when learning how to teach, can transcend the inherent conservatism of the ‘local’ and prepare teachers to become autonomous, creative and critical practitioners.