The Context in Teacher Education and Professionalism: Hierarchies, Networks and Markets in Four Countries

Institutional arrangements within Teacher Education (TE) are shaped by public policies and models of governance and promote specific conceptions of professional competence regarding the best ways to prepare teachers. A comparative approach to contexts such as policy environments and governance configurations, illustrates its relevance for TE. This chapter proposes a way of interpreting the context of teacher education in terms of three key governance mechanisms: (1) networks (2) markets and (3) hierarchies and shows how combinations of these may translate into various types of professionalism for teachers. England, for example, has advocated the solution of school networks (e.g. Matthews and Berwick, 2013), based on the claim that these networks promote powerful teacher knowledge where everyone is motivated by the concept of public service. In contrast, higher education institutions (HEIs) are considered by some scholars as best placed to give teacher trainees access to the knowledge that will empower them to act as independent teaching professionals. Therefore, as representatives of the profession, these teachers are independently committed to act in the best interests of their pupils and the societies to which these pupils belong. This is the case with the Italian teacher education programme for primary school teachers that is delivered by a network of fully autonomous academics in a university led context. Another narrative that can be found in Italy is one that combines the idea of university level preparation with the necessity of satisfying the local demands of teachers (market) while complying with civil servant criteria and hierarchical definitions. The third case is France, where an initial teacher education (ITE) model is designed jointly by universities and local hierarchies (school inspectors) and oriented to satisfy employer demands. In France, there is a more pronounced transition (compared to the Italian case) from a university led system to an employer and market-oriented system of teacher preparation. A fourth case illustrates the new context of network governance for continuous professional development (CPD) in China. At one time he State and the Party set the agenda in this field at the highest hierarchical level. However, this institutional pattern has transformed over time and in recent years a network of ministries that set the scene are partnering and creating a network of institutions at different levels of governance that collaborate in implementing the CPD vision in teacher education.