Preservice Teacher Education: Analyzing Consequences of a National Accreditation Process Within International Discourses of Reforms

• In Event: Roundtable Session 91
  In Roundtable Session: How Do We Reconcile NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education) and Social Justice (Broadly Defined)?

Abstract

The past two decades have borne witness to increasingly world-wide intensive political engagement for the purposes of improving teacher education. National audit systems have emerged to assure the public about the quality of college and university programs for professional educators. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and critically discuss the principal discourse(s) in national policy rhetoric(s) on accreditation of pre-service teacher education against the backdrop of dominant global trends. By using the case of Ireland, we identify the manner in which the dominant discourses are inscribed into policy and accreditation documents, and how this may influence student formation. We discuss alternative possibilities for improving teacher education more in tune with the vicissitudes of contemporary socio-cultural and economic realities.

Authors

• Tone Dyrdal Solbrekke, University of Oslo

• Ciaran Sugrue, University College Dublin