Becoming a teacher is a tricky road paved with struggles. The purpose of this reconstructive educational case study is to exemplify the complex construction of teacher identity by following the five-year journey of one student teacher in the process of qualifying as a primary schoolteacher in Finland. With the heuristic analysis of longitudinal…

Teacher education (TE) in Finland is based on strong university autonomy, including the right to decide the curriculum content and the teaching methods. Democracy and its values are generally seen as central principles for TE, and the normative basis for education promoting democratic culture is strong. However, in practice, education for…

The implementation of a teacher education strategy in a decentralised Finnish education system is analysed. Altogether, 31 pilot projects, involving teacher educators from all universities, were funded to support the implementation of the strategy and professional learning of autonomous teacher educators in the context of the strategy. In this…

The aim of this study was to explore the core of teaching practice as a part of the curricula for master's degree in special teacher education. The data consisted of the curricula of teaching practice of all six universities in Finland that offer this program, along with the results of an electronic questionnaire administered to students. The…

In 2013, the National Academy of Education's (NAEd) report on teacher education program evaluation in the United States provided a substantial synthesis of how the nation approaches quality assurance for teacher education programs (Feuer et al., 2013). The United States, having no federal requirements for such quality assurance, proves to be a…

Teachers play a pivotal role in guiding students' peer interactions, yet the nature of this role warrants further investigation. This study addresses this gap by investigating second-year pre-service classroom teachers' conceptions of this role, both before and after a course that integrated theory and practice in interaction and socioemotional…

This case study examines joint reflection in the context of peer group mentoring during the teaching practicum, involving three pre-service teachers and a mentor engaging in discussions supported by the video recorded lessons taught by the pre-service teachers. The approach to joint reflection was non-prescriptive and pre-service…

This study, conducted within a Finnish teacher education program, examined student teachers' perceptions of their skills development in a study group intervention designed to enhance their teacher leadership. Data were collected via semi-structured focus group interviews with the student teachers (n = 15) and examined using qualitative content…

This paper explores the international learning experiences of Indonesian teachers participating in a Finnish master's degree programme as an identity reconstruction process. We study the participants' experiences based on dialogical identity construction to explore the positioning and repositioning occurring during an international learning…

Provision of quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) supports children's learning with strong agreement that early childhood teachers (ECTs) are central to quality provision. In many countries, it is mandatory that ECEC services employ ECTs. However, Australian ECT employers report that early childhood graduates are not always…

Language aware schools need to be supported by language aware teacher education. In this study we analysed teacher socialisation among class teachers in Swedish immersion in Finland by qualitative content analysis of immersion teacher group discussions. We found that immersion teacher socialisation occurred mainly after entering the profession, as…

This paper describes a collaborative design for the Finnish Teacher Education Development Programme in a decentralized education system where teachers, schools, municipalities and universities have high autonomy. The development programme was designed by 70 experts from the universities and stakeholders. The research outcomes related to teacher…

In recent higher education research, quality in education export action has been explored from the perspective of traditional education export countries such as the UK and USA. However, less attention is given to novice education export providers that rely on different educational traditions. In this article, we explore quality of education as it…

Although teacher educators may perceive their program and courses to be coherent, the question remains to what extent student teachers also are able to perceive the linkages within their programs. Coherence within teacher education programs is important for teacher candidates to build understanding of teaching. Our study draws upon survey data…

Health science teacher candidates should acquire skills for professional development during their education as teachers, both to ensure their professional competence and improve the quality of learning. This study aimed to identify the competence levels and competence development needs of health science teacher candidates, and the factors…