Global Teacher Education Summit unites leading researchers to establish new consortium

On 8 – 9 September, Diane Mayer, Professor of Teacher Education, convened a Global Teacher Education Summit at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford, bringing together 23 leading teacher education researchers from Australia, Belgium, Canada, England, Finland, Hong Kong SAR, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, the USA and Wales.

The aim of the Summit was to develop a research consortium and design a global research agenda to inform large-scale, longitudinal, and multi-site research investigating the impact of current teacher education policies and practices in each of the countries.

The Summit provided the catalyst for establishing a global agenda for conducting the research. Some examples of questions that will be guiding this work include: Who is coming into the teaching profession? Where they are teaching and who they are teaching? Who is staying and who is leaving, and why? What is the impact of particular patterns of professional education on professional knowledge and practice? What is their impact on pupil outcomes? What is the role of university-based teacher educators? What is the role of school-based teacher educators? And, how do teachers engage with and use educational research?

As a result of the Summit, the Global Teacher Education Consortium (GTEC) was established and members will meet again at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2020 in San Francisco in April and at the European Conference for Education Research (ECER) 2020 in Glasgow in August. In addition to the longitudinal research investigating ‘The Global Teacher Class of 2020’, an edited book is planned to provide an overview of the policies and research in each of the countries.