Teacher education for the changing demographics of schooling: policy, practice and research

在整个英国，有许多优秀的学校为许多学生提供了很高的学习成绩，但人们仍然担心表现最差的20%学生的长尾成绩不佳。太多的学校仍然在努力实现为每个人提供优质教育和良好的学术和社会成果的承诺。一个关键的问题是，许多课堂教师报告说，他们对当今学校的挑战及其日益增长的文化、语言和发展多样性感到措手不足。教师教育（TE）在新教师如何为当今课堂的挑战做好充分准备方面发挥着重要作用，然而，在学生教师接受初步培训的短时间内，不可能预测他们在职业生涯中可能遇到的每一种挑战或困难。此外，两种广泛使用但截然不同的方法——在现有课程中添加专门课程或内容知识的多样性和“注入”的额外需求——已经取得了有限的成功，并且通常与其他与种族、阶级、文化和语言相关的多样性项目一起进行。拟议的系列研讨会将创造一个专业空间，与多个利益相关者进行广泛的对话，以检查当前教育实践和计划背后的假设和价值观，并考虑新兴的创新，旨在综合和整合关于教育角色的新思维，使教师为不断变化的学校人口做好准备。它为教师教育工作者和其他希望与大学教育学院同事合作的利益相关者创造了一个机会，为未来制定愿景，作为广泛议程的一部分，支持教师教育改革，作为一项战略，通过更好地培养中小学教师，以应对不同的学生群体，减少教育不平等。随着在国际比较和全球经济竞争中表现良好的压力推动教育政策，以及政策制定者越来越多地将教育作为改革的场所，许多国家的政策议程上都有一个新的愿景。有必要让主要利益相关者参与深思熟虑的讨论，讨论如何培养中小学课堂教师，使他们对所有学生抱有很高的期望，包括有特殊教育需求的学生、英语学习者和那些可能处于不利地位或被边缘化的学生。这种讨论需要以迄今为止研究提供的关于包容性实践的证据为依据，并确定在该领域进一步研究的必要性。计划在25个月的时间里举办6个为期一天的研讨会和一个小型会议，讨论以下主题：教育和教师多样性实践（研讨会1和2）；教师的知识、技能和价值观（研讨会3）；如何发展这些（研讨会4）并将其纳入教育教学课程、文化和政策（研讨会5和6）。每次研讨会将提交三篇论文，以确保有充足的讨论时间。最后的小型会议将传播讨论会的成果。核心研讨会小组将由教师、教育工作者、研究人员、教师和其他学校工作人员、决策者和专业协会的代表组成。将邀请其他英国与会者就相关主题进行广泛对话。为了认识到从业者对主题的见解的价值，每个研讨会的参与者中至少有一半将是教师和其他从业者。考虑到该领域的国际相关性，每个研讨会的一位演讲者将是国际研究人员，以提供来自其他背景的见解并鼓励批判性反思。将编写一系列政策简报和一本编辑过的书。

Throughout the UK there are many good schools that produce very high academic attainment for many pupils, but concerns remain about the long tail of under-achievement for the lowest performing 20% of students. Too many schools still struggle to deliver on the promise of a good quality education and good academic and social results for everybody. A key concern is that many classroom teachers report feeling unprepared for the challenges of today's schools and their increasing cultural, linguistic and developmental diversity. Teacher education (TE) has an important role to play in how well prepared new teachers feel for the challenges of today's classrooms, yet in the short time that student teachers are in initial training, it is impossible to anticipate every type of challenge or difficulty they might meet in their professional lives. Moreover, the two widely used but contrasting approaches to preparing student teachers for diversity - specialized courses that are added on to existing programmes or content knowledge on diversity and additional needs that is 'infused' into them, have met with limited success and typically occur alongside other diversity projects related to race, class, culture and language. The proposed seminar series will create a professional space to engage in a broad dialogue with multiple stakeholders to examine the assumptions and values that underlie current TE practices and programmes and consider emerging innovations aimed at synthesising and integrating new thinking about the role of TE in preparing teachers for the changing demographic of schooling. It creates an opportunity for teacher educators and other stakeholders who wish to work collaboratively with colleagues in university schools of education to set out a vision for the future as part of a broad agenda to support reform in teacher education as a strategy to reduce educational inequality by better preparing primary and secondary class teachers to respond to diverse student groups. A new vision is high on the policy agenda in many countries as the pressure to perform well on international comparisons and compete in a global economy drives education policy and as policy makers increasingly look to TE as a site for reform. There is a need to engage key stakeholders in thoughtful discussions on how to prepare primary and secondary classroom teachers to hold high expectations for all students, including students with special educational needs, English language learners and those who might be otherwise disadvantaged or marginalized. Such discussions need to be informed by the evidence about inclusive practices that the research has provided to date, as well as to identify the need for further research in the area.A series of six one day seminars and a mini conference are proposed over 25 months to address the themes of: TE and teachers' practices for diversity (seminars 1 & 2); teachers' knowledge, skills and values (seminar 3); how these can be developed (seminar 4) and incorporated in TE curricula, culture and policies (seminars 5 & 6). Three papers will be presented in each seminar ensuring ample time for discussion. The final mini-conference will disseminate the seminar outcomes.The core seminar group will consist of teacher educators, researchers, teachers and other school staff, policy makers and representatives of professional associations. Other UK participants will be invited to engage in a broad dialogue on relevant themes. In recognition of the value of practitioners' insights on the topics at least half of the participants in each seminar will be teachers and other practitioners. Considering the international relevance of the area, one presenter at each seminar will be an international researcher to provide insights from other contexts and encourage critical reflection. A series of policy briefs and an edited book will be produced.