The Brighton Conference in 1975 was devoted to an examination of some of the problems arising from the re-organisation of teacher education in a period of economic stringency and widespread cuts in education. The book is divided into four sections. The first considers the structural changes resulting from mergers and changing institutional roles. The second considers the changing curriculum; the third consists of discussion papers by three principals of colleges of higher education and the fourth section summarises discussions and seeks to identify some future trends in teacher education.

The Brighton Conference in 1975 was devoted to an examination of some of the problems arising from the re-organisation of teacher education in a period of economic stringency and widespread cuts in education. The book is divided into four sections. The first considers the structural changes resulting from mergers and changing institutional roles. The second considers the changing curriculum; the third consists of discussion papers by three principals of colleges of higher education and the fourth section summarises discussions and seeks to identify some future trends in teacher education.

This book maps out a new paradigm of teacher education and, by implication, professional education generally. The book opens with two alternative theories of teacher education and training and explains the concepts and assumptions on which they rest including beliefs about the nature and role of education in society. It then proposes a ‘natural science’ paradigm and its implications for establishing a coherent view of teacher education. Subsequent chapters indicate the professional implications of such a model.

The educational implications of cultural pluralism attracted a good deal of attention in Western societies in the 1970s and 1980s, on the grounds of equality and human rights, maximising national talent, and maintaining social cohesion. Maurice Craft and the international contributors to this book highlight the potential of teacher education, and in this wide-ranging analytical review for its key role in providing for ethnic minority children, in respect of access and achievements, and also for all children to acquire informed and tolerant attitudes. This book makes an important contribution to a small but growing literature, concentrating on initial rather than in-service teacher education, and it brings together papers from experienced specialists from eleven countries worldwide: Australia, Britain, Canada, Israel, Malaysia, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands and the USA. The papers are concerned with the needs both of diverse classrooms and diverse societies, and also consider general principles and comparative perspectives. Of interest to the specialist and non-specialist alike, Teacher Education in Plural Societies: An International Review deals with an important and timely issue – how best to prepare teachers to meet the needs of both minority – and majority – culture pupils who are growing up in plural societies.

This study illuminates how the everyday activity of teachers raises profound economic, cultural, ethical, political and research issues, and provides a new and fruitful way of examining the practice of teaching. The first part of the book offers a detailed description of sensitively recorded school situations, arising from work carried out in a number of British primary schools. From the analysis of their research the authors constructed a theoretical perspective for looking at schooling in the form of sixteen ‘dilemmas’; the second half of the book is concerned with this perspective, and shows how the dilemmas constitute a language for looking at everyday schooling and relating it to more general political, social and cultural issues. The book thus spans the gap in educational thinking between work with a firm empirical base and specifically theoretical studies.

This volume considers how various sociological approaches to the exploration of the conditions of teachers’ might be co-ordinated so as to produce a more penetrating and reliable understanding of the main dimensions of teachers’ work. Three dimensions are selected for special attention: historical, institutional and interactional contexts in which teachers operate. In different way the papers in this collection explore the contribution such an investigation of these contexts can make to our understanding of wider educational concerns.

Gerald Grace here explores the concept of role conflict and the current theorizing about the problems of the teacher’s role. He investigates four potential problem areas – role diffuseness, role vulnerability, role commitment versus career orientation, and value conflict – in a sample of one hundred and fifty secondary school teachers in a Midland town. The analysis shows how a teacher’s commitment to a particular set of values exposes him or her to conflict in an achievement-oriented and pluralistic society. These conflicts, present in all schools, are seen in their clearest form among secondary modern school teachers. The author suggests that colleges of education, in emphasizing commitment and in assuming value consensus, predispose their students to conflict experiences. He indicates that internal career possibilities in schools and the influence of graduate or certified status are also important factors in conflict exposure. While accepting that certain role conflicts are important in the genesis of change, the author proposes that levels of dysfunctional conflict can be reduced by the action of head teachers, by structural change in the schools and innovations in teaching education.

This volume provides an international perspective on educational dependency in considering both theories and actual developments throughout the world. Some less developed countries, in expanding their education systems, have emulated Western academic-style systems and have increased their dependence on Western models in various respects including examination validation. Others have deliberately avoided this path and have experimented with systems more ‘relevant’ to development, often in a radical way. At a theoretical level, Marxist and neo-Marxist development theorists argue that education systems dependent on the West are evidence of economic dependency and confirmation of Marxist development theories; while others argue that the evidence suggests an interdependent world and that dependency theories do not apply in education.

During the 1980s, Britain’s educational system was restructured and redirected. Of the many changes which were made, perhaps the most far-reaching have affected the education of teachers themselves.The contributors to this book have all been centrally involved in the reforming process of teacher education, as providers, assessors, or practitioners, and it is as such that they reflect upon the significant features of the changes in teacher education, while assessing the fulfilment of the initial promise. The book analyses recent advances in teacher education, especially the trend towards improved teacher awareness and explains the application of new ideas in education, considering their political causes and effects. The first critical appraisal of the Thatcherite reform of teacher education, this book also provides an up-to-date examination of the support services for teachers in-service, and shows what is amiss with the government’s strategies for in-service training.With its clear insights into the pressing concerns of teacher education today, Advances in Teacher Education will be an invaluable resource base for students, teachers, lectures, and educational administrators as they attempt to understand the motivation and stresses of teacher reform.