Developing Practice: Teaching Teachers Today for Tomorrow

Abstract

A call for more and better teachers // A recent policy statement from the Department of Education in South Africa (RSA 2007) calls for ‘more teachers, better teachers’ (emphasis added) and the NEPAD education desk (NEPAD c.2006:2) has identified a number of challenges facing teacher education in Africa more generally while also expressing concern about numbers and quality. // The central defining role of a teacher as a knowledge worker, able to organise knowledge and learning in a systematic way, needs to be foregrounded (Morrow 2007). Nurturing a commitment and ability regarding lifelong learning and the appropriate use of appropriate technology to attain educational goals would seem to be pre- and co-requisites given the current explosion of access to information. // The new teacher education policy framework in South Africa (RSA 2007) meanwhile makes teaching practice a central focus of an Initial Professional Education and Training programme and national accreditation requirements (CHE 2008) expect direct institutional involvement in the placing and supervision of student teachers on teaching practice.