Teacher Education and the Political is a striking book which addresses the nature and purpose of teacher education in a global context characterised by economic and political anxieties around declining productivity and social inclusion. These anxieties are manifested in recent policy developments such as the promotion of professional standards, the deregulation and marketisation of teacher education and the imposition of performance-related regimes that tie teachers' pay to outcomes in high-stakes testing. The book assesses the implications of such policies for the work of teachers as well as for teacher educators and those undertaking initial teacher training. It is argued that these policy moves can be read as a depoliticising and de-intellectualising of teacher education. In this context, they illustrate how contemporary theory can provide a language for critiquing recent developments and imagining new trajectories for policy and practice in teacher education. Drawing on the work of theorists from Derrida and Mouffe to Agamben and Lacan, this book argues for the need to maintain a space for intellectual autonomy as a critical dimension of the ethico-political work of teachers. Together these ideas and analyses provide examples of the power of negative thinking, illustrating its capacity to unsettle comfortable truths and foreground the political nature of teacher education. Current teachers, teacher educators and school leaders will be particularly interested readers, alongside those concerned with policy in the wider educational landscape.

Teacher Education and the Political is a striking book which addresses the nature and purpose of teacher education in a global context characterised by economic and political anxieties around declining productivity and social inclusion. These anxieties are manifested in recent policy developments such as the promotion of professional standards, the deregulation and marketisation of teacher education and the imposition of performance-related regimes that tie teachers' pay to outcomes in high-stakes testing. The book assesses the implications of such policies for the work of teachers as well as for teacher educators and those undertaking initial teacher training. It is argued that these policy moves can be read as a depoliticising and de-intellectualising of teacher education. In this context, they illustrate how contemporary theory can provide a language for critiquing recent developments and imagining new trajectories for policy and practice in teacher education. Drawing on the work of theorists from Derrida and Mouffe to Agamben and Lacan, this book argues for the need to maintain a space for intellectual autonomy as a critical dimension of the ethico-political work of teachers. Together these ideas and analyses provide examples of the power of negative thinking, illustrating its capacity to unsettle comfortable truths and foreground the political nature of teacher education. Current teachers, teacher educators and school leaders will be particularly interested readers, alongside those concerned with policy in the wider educational landscape.

Les chercheurs canadiens qui ont participe a cet ouvrage collectif proposent une reponse a leurs preoccupations collectives qui portent essentiellement sur l'impact de la politique globale sur la formation des enseignants, et ce, afin d'etablir un dialogue franc et approfondi sur la formation des enseignants telle que pratiquee a notre epoque. Durant les deux premieres decennies du nouveau millenaire, le monde occidental a connu une augmentation sans precedent des analyses, des evaluations et des propositions les plus diverses portant sur la politique educative (du jardin d'enfant a la fin du secondaire). En consequence, la formation des enseignants a ete tres fortement impactee dans un contexte global ou les gouvernements considerent la reforme et la gestion de la formation des enseignants comme une composante clef de la restructuration de l'enseignement, et ce, afin que l'enseignement dispense soit plus competitif sur le plan economique. Force est de constater que cette approche s'est traduite par un niveau de standardisation indesirable et totalement injustifie. Pour garantir l'avenir de la formation des enseignants et donc de l'education publique, il est aujourd'hui fondamental d'imaginer des alternatives a l'homogeneisation de l'experience educative, qui resulte des politiques adoptees dans le cadre de la mondialisation. Dans cette perspective, il est necessaire de fournir aux enseignants et aux educateurs un vocabulaire et une terminologie specifiques qui leur permettent de definir et d'articuler leurs objectifs educatifs, au-dela de la notion reductrice de capital, tout en privilegiant les differents types d'experience educative qui preparent les jeunes a mener des vies satisfaisantes et utiles. En s'inspirant des enseignements tires du contexte canadien, les auteurs de cet ouvrage ont identifie et evalue l'importance d'une education professionnelle initiale et qui continue de favorise l'apprentissage et la liberte intellectuelle des enseignants ; promeut une appreciation critique et informee des specificites civiques et des circonstances historiques ; et favorise un engagement ethique (et donc pedagogique) qui prend en compte les idees et les antecedents des enseignants et de leurs eleves et les considerent comme des themes cruciaux de la formation globale des enseignants. Ce livre est publie en anglais - In this collection, Canadian scholars articulate a response to their collective concerns about the impact of global policy on teacher education, provoking a far-reaching dialogue about teacher education in and for our times. The first two decades of the new millennium have witnessed unprecedented appraisal, analysis, and educational policy formulations related to teaching (K-12) across the Western world. In turn, teacher education has been greatly impacted, as governments around the world see the reform and management of teacher education as a key component in restructuring education toward greater economic competitiveness. The result has been an unwarranted and undesirable level of standardization. It is vital to the future of teacher education, and concomitantly public education, that we imagine alternatives to the homogenization of the educational experience that globalizing policies install. What is needed are vocabularies that enable educators and teacher educators to discern and articulate educational purposes beyond capital and which focus on the kinds of educational experiences that can help prepare the young to lead good and worthwhile lives. Using lessons learned from the Canadian context, the authors identify and investigate the importance of initial and continuing professional education that fosters teachers' intellectual freedom and study; advances an informed and critical appreciation of civic particularity and historical circumstance; and cultivates ethical (i.e., pedagogical) engagement with ideas and histories-teachers' own and their students-as crucial themes of teacher education globally. This book is published in English