What Is Teacher Education for? A Synthesis of Critiques and Insights

The question of “What is teacher education for?” forms the subject of engagement in this chapter. Drawing from past experiences and on-going scholarship on teacher education, long-standing key concerns are highlighted. These include, amongst others, conceptions of teacher education, the mismatch between subject specialization and being underprepared for place-based teaching. The chapter then proceeds to synthesize key issues raised across the chapters in this edited collection of works which necessitate a critical and complicated conversation on teacher education. The chapter concludes with some commentary around what might be points of on-going rigorous debates on what might constitute a high-quality teacher education programme for developing teachers across their professional career to respond to the education needs of society.