Dear Colleagues,

Enlightening and empowering teacher education policies and practices are no doubt a challenging yet crucial agenda. There have been more requests for quality teacher education in the face of global calls for 21st century educational reforms amid the worldwide conundrum of teacher shortage challenges in the market-based, neoliberal educational landscapes of high-stake accountability and prescribed curricular teaching (Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond, 2019; Williams III, Hill-Jackson, Caldwell, and Craig, 2022; Zimmerman, 2018). The complexity and multidimensionality of teacher education has been more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic (Flores, 2021). Various scholars have highlighted the roles of teacher education in developing (effective) teachers to cope with both cognitive and emotional challenges (e.g., catering to learner diversity, technology integration in teaching practice, managing complaints from parents, etc.) during the pandemic and beyond (Allen, Rowan, and Singh, 2020; Darling-Hammond and Hyler, 2020; Donitsa-Schmidt and Ramot, 2020; Flores, 2021; Heineke and Vera, 2022; Hill, Rosehart, St. Helene, and Sadhra, 2020). In such demanding, diverse, and dynamic contexts over the past two years, both policies and practices in teacher education (preservice, induction, and in-service) have played significantly important roles in preparing, supporting, and transforming teachers to carry out teaching responsibilities and emerging tasks effectively (Darling-Hammond, 2020; Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin, 2011; Goldhaber, 2019), with the literature growing in this regard. The current Special Issue aims to provide a platform for international scholars to share their works related to teacher education and, therefore, drawing implications for policy formulations and the feasibility of practices in teacher education around the world.

The aim of this Special Issue is to contribute to the current literature by highlighting the “key learnings” in teacher education policies and practices during the pandemic for preparing teachers with the following objectives:

• To provide an extensive, comprehensive collection of international scholar perspectives and works in the field of teacher education;
• To reflect on the ways teacher education has responded to the increasing needs in the “new normal” contexts of learning and teaching;
• To reconsider what works (and does not work) to prepare teachers;
• To rethink how teacher education can be strengthened and sustained to face novel challenges more strategically;
• To reconstruct novel knowledge based on (good) practice in developing teachers.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• National, institutional, and pedagogical responses to the pandemic in teacher education policies;
• Novel learning and teaching approaches for teacher education (preservice, induction, and in-service);
• Innovations directed at teacher preparation and professional learning;
• Learning–teaching scenarios in teacher education during the COVID-19 pandemic: challenges and opportunities;
• The roles and preparedness of teacher educators/teacher education institutions to support teacher professional development in the pandemic;
• Transition from teacher education institutions to workplaces in schools.

References

Allen, J., Rowan, L., and Singh, P. (2020). Teaching and teacher education in the time of COVID-19. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 48(3), 233-236.

Carver-Thomas, D., and Darling-Hammond, L. (2019). The trouble with teacher turnover: How teacher attrition affects students and schools. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27(36). Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1213629.pdf.

Cochran-Smith, M., Stringer Keefe, E., and Carney, M. C. (2018). Teacher educators as reformers: Competing agendas. European Journal of Teacher Education, 41(5), 572-590.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2020). Accountability in teacher education. Action in teacher Education, 42(1), 60-71.

Darling-Hammond, L., and Hyler, M. E. (2020). Preparing educators for the time of COVID… and beyond. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 457-465.

Darling-Hammond, L., and McLaughlin, M. W. (2011). Policies that support professional development in an era of reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6), 81-92.

Donitsa-Schmidt, S., and Ramot, R. (2020). Opportunities and challenges: teacher education in Israel in the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Education for Teaching, 46(4), 586-595.

Flores, M. A. (2021). Editorial. The multidimensionality of teacher professional learning: context, content and change. European Journal of Teacher Education, 44(4), 429-431.

Goldhaber, D. (2019). Evidence-based teacher preparation: Policy context and what we know. Journal of Teacher Education, 70(2), 90-101.

Heineke, A. J., and Vera, E. M. (2022). Beyond language and academics: Investigating teachers’ preparation to promote the social-emotional well-being of emergent bilingual learners. Journal of Teacher Education, 73(2), 145-158.

Hill, C., Rosehart, P., St. Helene, J., and Sadhra, S. (2020). What kind of educator does the world need today? Reimagining teacher education in post-pandemic Canada. Journal of Education for Teaching, 46(4), 565-575.

Williams III, J. A., Hill-Jackson, V., Caldwell, C., and Craig, C. J. (2022). Teacher Recruitment and Retention: Local Strategies, Global Inspiration. Journal of Teacher Education, 73(4), 333-337.

Zimmerman, A. S. (2018). Democratic teacher education: Preserving public education as a public good in an era of neoliberalism. The Educational Forum, 82(3), 351-368.

Dr. Sally Wai-yan Wan
Dr. Maria Antonietta Impedovo
Guest Editors

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• teacher education
• teacher professional development
• initial teacher education
• prospective teachers
• in-service teachers
• pedagogy
• policy development
• sustainable development
• alternative programs
• COVID-19 pandemic

Title: Leadership perspectives that challenge the impact of traditions and practices of integration vs inclusion on African Americans in the US
Authors: Alison Taysum; Carole Collins Ayanlaja
Affiliation: -
Abstract: The professional challenge this paper addresses is educational leadership has failed to reverse unconscious bias and exchange integration for inclusion in school systems. This is a problem globally evidenced by the Black-White achievement gap and the legacy of White Supremacy and in the US the African American experience of integration post US Supreme Court’s Brown V Board of Education (Stansberry Beard, 2012). Integration of African American and White children has a legacy of segregating African American children into lower ability streaming. This prevents inclusion with equal concern for each individual revealed through equitable access to college eligibility and middle class benefits. Segregation by integration reveals unconscious bias perpetuating racialisation in schools in plain sight. White Professors in the academy can reverse unconscious bias and integration in school systems with inclusion with doctoral programs that credential senior educational leaders/superintendents. The methodology of typology classifies conceptually distinct types of classroom processes and practices impact on students’ emotions ranging from integration, insecurity, fear and acceptance of an inferior status (Woodson,1992), to inclusion security and self-management with decision making. The typology reveals that classroom processes and practices of integration develop identities that accept an inferior status (Woodson,1992). Recommendations: i) National Policy, and programmes must support White Professors reverse Unconscious Bias in partnership with Senior Leaders/Superintendents. ii) An evaluative framework is operationalised by Senior Leaders/Superintendents and White Professors using quantitative measures of effectiveness as milestones to monitor, evaluate and publish incremental progress on qualitative pathways to inclusion benchmarked within states and between states.

Title: Multiculturalism, Chinese Education, and Teacher Education in Malaysia under the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Jason Cong Lin; Zhen Cheng
Affiliation: Education University of Hong Kong
Abstract: The racial structure of Malaysia is primarily composed of Malays, Chinese, Indians and various indigenous groups. Given the diversity of race, language, culture and religion, multiculturalism has always been the dominant ideology and policy orientation of Malaysia. Chinese education in Malaysia is a complete form of education from basic education to colleges primarily carried out by Malaysian Chinese to inherit their racial and cultural identity. Its origin, development, and purpose are often closely related to multiculturalism. The COVID-19 pandemic poses significant challenges and potential opportunities to the development of Chinese education and teacher education in Malaysia, especially regarding the relationship between Chinese education and multicultural education, the forms of teaching and learning, and teacher education. In this context, by examining recent policies and practices related to Chinese education and teacher education in Malaysia, this study explores 1) what new challenges have appeared for teachers in Chinese education, 2) what resources and interventions have been provided to support teachers, and 3) what can/should be done in the future?

Title: Hong Kong preservice teachers’ student experiences with school banding and their identification with pro-diversity and related teaching practices
Authors: Daphnee Hui Lin LEE; Jan GUBE
Affiliation: -
Abstract: There is prolific literature on the marginalization of ethnic minorities at school, but insufficient attention on the connections between pro-diversity action and daily teaching practice in producing differentiated diversity outcomes. This paper draws original insights from our professional development efforts in empowering preservice teachers to develop a sense of connectedness between teacher identities and identities as pro-diversity champions. We seek to understand these connections via their pedagogical identities (assessment, discipline, diversity, instructional, and motivational), and their childhood experiences as students educated in schools of different academic achievements (banding). To simulate the real diversity of how students in a classroom may make sense of their ethnic identities, we use survey data from their peers to an open question asking for their ethnic identity. Groups of students who have signed up for diversity management professional development make sense of the survey results, drawing connections between student ethnic identity and teaching practice (e.g., classroom management) via reflective dialogues. We use a rigorous triangulation of qualitative methods to collect observational and focus group data during these sessions. Our findings show that a particular group of preservice teachers in the workshop demonstrates highly nuanced identity constructions resulting from their group discussions. Given time for collaborative reflection, they converge in their sensemaking of pro-diversity practices. The preservice teachers first categorize “students’” ethnic identities. An analysis of these categories shows they interpret who are “hosts” and “guests” in Hong Kong based on a “heatmap” of who they see are closer to or more distant from themselves. Ensuing, they apply pro-diversity principles, arranging “students” into “cultural mosaics” so students may enjoy intercultural interaction while feeling secure with the presence of classmates they perceive as belonging to similar cultures. However, their views start diverging as they draw connections between pro-diversity and related pedagogies. The preservice teachers explain and self-identify their differences arising from the academic performance banding of the schools they attended as students. The implications of our findings are globally significant—teachers must first develop a cultural awareness of their own experiences of ethnic diversity as students, including non-ethnic aspects of identity. Notably, pro-diversity teachers share a commitment to improving the marginalized educational access of ethnic minority students, but their identities as students of different academic banding mediate its practices and outcomes. Our findings challenge assumptions that teacher-student ethnic matching is necessarily the best approach for supporting ethnic minority students. Ethnic identity is but one of the many aspects of teacher identity. A teacher’s approach to making sense of cultural diversity may be but is not limited to ethnicity. Moreover, while teachers with similar experiences may better understand ethnic minority students from their perspectives, pro-diversity teachers with dissimilar backgrounds may better stimulate alternative possibilities as they reconcile differences between students and themselves. Likewise, the preservice teachers in our findings gained awareness of the implications of their pro-diversity practices because of the reflective dialogues with peers who were students from different school bandings.