Stakeholder perceptions and experiences of preservice teachers’ professional readiness: some implications for initial teacher education

Globally, education reviews have spotlit professional preparation as a policy problem alongside teacher shortages and early career teacher attrition. Our study explored how preservice teacher (PST) engagement and preparation for practice are related in one Australian university, drawing on Kahu and Nelson's framework of student engagement in the educational interface. Findings show that graduates, mentor teachers, and teacher educators had mismatched expectations about teacher education and PSTs' preparation for practice. Reflecting the teacher education research literature, these revealed different understandings of the relationship between theory and practice in PSTs' preparation and emphasised the situatedness of teacher professional learning. More notably, mentor teachers and teacher educators also highlighted some PSTs' lack of engagement as a barrier to preparation for practice. We conclude with some suggestions about achieving greater coherence between teacher education and professional experience placements, focusing on expectations about attendance and participation to promote PSTs' engagement in professional behaviours.