Teacher Education in the English-Speaking World

This edited book is a comparative study on teacher education across ten major Englishspeakingregions of the world (USA, English Canada, England and Wales, Scotland,Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand). The focus onindividual regions is reflective of a comparative approach with a long tradition goingback to the turn of the twentieth century. This approach is still valid at the present time asit provides one of the best ways of initially structuring our understanding of teachereducation at the macro level in order to facilitate communication of the situation crossnationallyand prepare the way for higher levels of analyses. To this end, the book hastwelve chapters: An introductory chapter details the focus of the book. This is followedby a chapter on each of the ten regions. Each of these chapters, written by an expert in thefield:focuses on general trends in teacher education rather than on any specific aspect of it;focuses primarily on pre-service teacher education at the primary and post-primary levels, although some referenceis also made to continuing professional development;strikes a balance between past, present and future trends;deals broadly with access to, the processes involved in, and the structure of, teacher education;has a unique structure rather than one based upon a formulaic approach.In the final chapter major themes are distilled from the case studies. It also outlines how the book furthers understanding ofteacher education internationally, considers other groupings of regions ripe forconsideration along similar lines, and indicates initiatives arising out of the casestudies worthy of consideration for the improvement of teacher education crossnationally.