Rethinking Teacher Education for a Global Future: Lessons from the English

Abstract Recent reforms of teacher education in England and Wales and the extent to which they reflect a response to global economic pressures are considered. The paper challenges the view that such pressures are inexorable determinants of educational policy and argues that any country will need to develop its own national approach to modernising teacher education in light of the global context and its particular circumstances. It draws on the idea of reflexive modernisation developed by Giddens et al . (1994) and discusses its implications for teacher education policy. The paper considers four themes in recent teacher education policy in the UK; the shift away from the educational disciplines, the shift towards school-based approaches, the emergence of more centralised forms of accountability of teacher competence and the greater responsibility of schools in the professional development of teachers. The paper argues that in each case UK policies represent a one-sided response to the need for improving the professional skills and knowledge of teachers. It concludes by arguing that the reflexive modernisation of teacher education would involve (a) the development of new concepts of learning, (b) a rethink of the teacher education curriculum, (c) the development of new forms of partnership between schools and universities, and (d) a reconsideration of how the professional skills and knowledge of teachers are assessed and by whom.