Teacher Education, Teachers’ Work, and Justice in Education: Third Space and Mediation Epistemology

Abstract

A theoretical essay, based on the results of research projects on teacher education, teachers' work, and justice in education developed by the author, is presented. It reflects on teacher education and the epistemology of teachers' work, and proposes a mediational and a narrative perspective towards a third space in Teacher education. An alternative mediation epistemological approach to justice in education and the epistemology of teachers' work is presented, aiming towards an understanding of the ways in which teachers' education has the possibility of making a difference in the construction of a more just public school.

Educator Competences in Sustainability Education: A Systematic Review of Frameworks

“…D13-ESD competence aspect knowledge and ability 1 (*) Meaning of the superscript numbers next to the studies: 1 The competence was named in a slightly different way, but the main idea agrees with the broader definition of the competence, there is an explicit indication of the original name. 2 The competence was not named under any particular name, but the main idea agrees with the broader definition of the competence.…”

“…In the face of current socio-environmental challenges, being an educator is a complicated task. It entails the mastery of diverse competences that include a variety of skills and types of professional knowledge but also being critically aware of the factors causing unsustainable lifestyles and social and environmental injustice inside and outside school [1]. International education institutions argue that educators' role should be far from promoting unreflective conformity about these concerning issues among students.…”

Teacher education cultural diversity, social justice and equality: Policies, challenges and abandoned possibilities in Swedish teacher education

“…However, as the present article suggests, resistance is more complicated than this and has been a strongly vertical phenomenon that took form both in the field of research production through the regulation and production of research in the political contextualizing field (Parliament, Government and their offices), and in the fields of pedagogical re-contextualization (university/ college curricula and local regulating agencies and professional groups: including university professors). Comparisons with conditions in other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Germany, England, Holland and Canada, as identified in international research possibly applies not only in Sweden (Apple, 2001(Apple, , 2006Beach & Bagley, 2013;Codd, 2005;Lindberg, 2004;Darling Hammond, 2006;Edwards, 2001;Malsbary, 2016;Niemi, 2008;Pereira, 2019;Rasmussen, 2008).…”

“…The second is that this opposition is often associated with the political right and some professional groups, but that in some case and conditions it also came from within scientific communities; particularly when reforms were felt to encroach on and limit critical reflection and autonomy. These seem to be international features not only national ones (Antikainen, 2010;Apple, 2001;Ball, 2007;Bagley, 2012, 2013;Codd, 2005;Darling-Hammond, 2006;Edwards, 2001;Pereira, 2019). They suggest that expressions about a desire to address social inequalities in education and through teacher education and education research come most often from social democratic politicians, whilst conservative right wing politicians oppose such changes by fighting to withhold the most intellectually challenging and rewarding education from the majority of pupils by channelling educational resources into the reproduction of elites (Apple, 2001(Apple, , 2006Beach, 2018).…”

“…It was initially established by Noblit and Hare (1988) and has been used previously in Sweden in both teacher education (Beach, Bagley, Eriksson and Player-Koro, 2014) and education justice research (Beach, 2016(Beach, , 2017(Beach, , 2018Beach, Dovemark, Schwartz and Öhrn, 2013). Then and now the aim has been to identify not only what has gone wrong with education reform but also what the struggles for education justice and equality need to include in order to be successful and how efforts to attain social justice aims often fail mainly on their own terms (Beach, 2018;Honneth, 2001;Malsbary, 2016;Pereira, 2019). Kallós (2009) identified two main recommendations in the LUK Commission report: (a) strengthening professional unification among teachers by reducing the number of divisions into which teacher education fell and increasing the amount of common content through a new general professional component (Prop.…”