The pursuit of teacher quality: identifying some of the multiple discourses of quality that impact the work of teacher educators

ABSTRACT

Concerns with the readiness of beginning teachers has resulted in significant changes to ITE programs in Australia. Declining student performance in domestic and international assessments is being seen as a policy problem that can be addressed through policy solutions intended to lift the quality of teachers. While quality and performance measures are linked in this policy agenda, it is not clear how quality teacher and teaching are being defined. In this special issue exploring what teacher educators “should” know, it is reasonable for teacher educators to know more about the ideals of teacher and teaching quality against which they are held to account. Exploring the literature pertaining to the quality teacher discourse informing initial teacher education (ITE) programs, this paper is a thematic literature review relating to the discourses of teacher and teaching quality. Understanding how these discourses of quality interrelate and shape teacher education is an important and necessary consideration in the development of ITE programs.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher quality
• teacher education
• teaching quality
• discourses
• policy

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Jo Lunn, Marg Kettle and the Teacher Education and Professional Learning (TEPL) research group at QUT for their support and encouragement.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter Churchward

Peter Churchward is a PhD student, researching the effect of the current Australian policy environment directed at teacher quality on the development of early career teachers.

Jill Willis

Jill Willis is an assessment researcher and senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Queensland University of Technology, promoting agency and equity through everyday assessment practices and learning space designs.