Spatial Perspectives on Teacher Education

• In Event: Comparative Studies in Teacher Education

Abstract

1. Objectives

This paper uses spatial theory as a useful analytical and comparative tool in understanding how teacher education systems work alongside contextual variations in time and space. Spatial theory recognises that space is more than location but includes the relative and representational nature of space: that teacher education is situated within relational hierarchies bound up with representations of the “good” teacher. Building on these spatial theories, the emergence of decolonial thinking maybe a turning point in understanding teacher education from a comparative perspective.

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

Teacher education is fundamentally a spatial practice: operating in different physical locations under the supervision of various organisations who are working in partnership. Understanding initial teacher education (ITE) in a specific location would require examining the complexity of those specific locations, the way they interact with each other and the implied and actual hierarchies involved, and the different degrees of importance and meaning they attach to the practice-based activity of ITE. The categorisation of the spatial into the triad adopted by Lefebvre (1991) and Harvey (2004) can open up the significance of these places so that they are seen in relation to their physical location, their relative status within the hierarchy of other organisations, and their representational nature in how they replicate ideas of the “good” teacher and the purpose of education.

3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry

Using a comparative case study cross-national approach this paper analyzes spaces as affected by regulations in teacher education across contexts to illustrate:

(a) the definition of Teacher Standards in England and how it reveals both locational, relative and representational spatial expressions
(b) the definition of Teacher Standards in China hand how it has been influenced by global trends
(c) the establishment of Teacher Standards in Australia as a key technology in the governance of teacher education and the variety of measures around accountability, accreditation and validation
(d) the influence of teacher education accountability structures in the Chilean and Brazilian contexts, and how it neglects the productive relationships that teachers might create with their school contexts.

4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials

Policy documents across the countries examined.

5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view

Through the analysis of the case studies this paper illustrates the intriguing paradox of both the universal and the unique, for example:
• how the expression of teacher standards is influenced by local needs and global trends;
• how policy technologies are used to emphasise some forms of socially or politically acceptable knowledges over others;
• the importance of professional spaces and networks for teachers;

6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work

Many educators are firmly committed to the decolonisation of teacher education. Spatial theory offers a hitherto under-valued approach to understanding our education systems in nuanced ways: that can highlight issues of power, influences and resistance that is both globally aware and locally grounded.

Author

• Clare Brooks, UCL Institute of Education