Teacher Education for 2050: Signature Pedagogies, Professionalism and Future-Oriented Practice

Professor Clare Brooks, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

Abstract

What makes teaching a profession, and what kind of teacher education will be needed for an uncertain future? Amid growing international policy interest in prescribing the content of initial teacher education (ITE), this seminar explores an alternative question: how can teacher education cultivate the professional judgement, adaptability and agency teachers will need in rapidly changing contexts?

Drawing on findings from four research projects conducted across institutional, national and international settings, the seminar combines two lines of inquiry. The first examines whether teacher education has a distinctive signature pedagogy that reflects the values, knowledge and practices of the profession. The second explores what a sector-led vision for ITE in 2050 and beyond might look like.

The findings suggest that the future of ITE lies not in increasingly detailed prescriptions of content, but in pedagogies that support professional formation, ethical judgement and responsiveness to societal change, offering a future-oriented framework for teacher education policy and practice.

Bio

Clare Brooks is a Professor and Head of Faculty at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on how policy influences access to teacher education particularly for isolated communities, and the implications for  high-quality initial teacher education at scale. She has also worked to redefine quality as a keyword in initial teacher education.

Joining Online
This event will be accessible via Microsoft Teams. If you would like to attend online, please contact ed.research@durham.ac.uk to request the Teams link.