Initial Teacher Education Policy and Practice

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to generate a systematic description of policy and practice
\nacross qualifications of initial teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand. The study was
\nconducted in two phases. Data from publicly-available documentation of the 27 providers of
\ninitial teacher education were recorded in an electronic data base as a means of compiling
\nindividual profiles of each qualification. Subsequently, twenty-five providers participated in
\ninterviews to ensure that profiles accurately reflected the policy and practice of the
\nqualification. Qualification profiles were reviewed to identify common and distinctive
\ncharacteristics of initial teacher education according to sector (early childhood, primary and
\nsecondary), type of qualification and type of provider. Findings were considered within a
\nframework of contemporary national and international research and implications identified
\nfor future research, policy and practice in initial teacher education.
\nThis project confirms that initial teacher education is incredibly complex and multi-faceted
\nand that New Zealand qualifications reflect many of the achievements and the challenges of
\nimplementing quality teacher education that are experienced internationally. The official
\ndocumentation reveals that there is a general lack of explicit coherence among components
\nof many qualifications, that in some cases there is no clearly articulated conceptual or
\ntheoretical base underpinning qualifications, and, that, in the documentation of many
\nqualifications, there are conspicuous silences surrounding aspects of initial teacher education
\ncritical to the New Zealand context. There is also evidence that the regulatory and
\ncompliance environment within which providers operate is sometimes perceived as
\ndistracting, rather than ensuring quality.
\nThis national project has enabled us to identify key areas for further and ongoing attention
\nboth by individual providers of initial teacher education and, more importantly, by the
\nprofessional community of teacher education in collaboration with the Ministry of
\nEducation, the New Zealand Teachers Council and others. We need to determine, and thence
\narticulate more clearly, the fundamental goals of initial teacher education and to demonstrate
\nhow programmes of ITE are coherent in their underlying values, goals, design, curriculum,
\npedagogy and implementation. There is a need also to consider how current external quality
\nassurance processes can be made more coherent with fundamental goals of initial teacher
\neducation and the research on theory and practice that underpins these goals.