A new teaching professionalism for new times : the role of teacher education from a poststructuralist perspective

Abstract

As we move into the new millennium, debates intensify as to what novice teachers need to know, who could and should provide this knowledge and how teacher learning might be linked to educational and social change. Arguably, in new and uncertain times responsible teaching professionalism is as much about building collaborative learning cultures and critical inquiry in school and community contexts, as the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge and skills. While teacher education is well placed to produce generative teaching professionals able to fashion these learning cultures, it may be that teacher educators will first need to embrace uncertainty, questioning and interrupting taken-for-granted assumptions that currently frame practice and potentially inhibit change.