Teacher Education for the Future: Some Australian Perspectives

As a result of presentations in the PCC Conference in Sydney in 2005, this research aims to contribute Australian voices to the project being conducted simultaneously in other countries from the Pacific Circle Consortium. The research used project-devised survey and interview instruments with purposive sampled pairs of teachers and pre-service teachers during professional experience in 2005 and with teacher educators from the University of Western Sydney. The findings indicated that the participants have a common view of the purpose of education. However, there were range of issues that this view prompted participants to discuss. There were also perceived constraints, especially expressed by the experienced teachers. Implications of this finding are that teachers need forums in which to discuss their deep-seated philosophical approaches as they build a sustainable community of practice. The findings of this project can powerfully contribute to policy making at national and international government and university levels as they raise implications of how we meet challenges in future teacher education.