The Teacher Education Forum of Aotearoa New Zealand (TEFANZ) and the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) are running a conference in July 2020. The theme of the conference is Teacher Education: Global Issues, Local Responses.

CANCELLED

This conference has now been cancelled due to the Covid-19 situation.

Teacher education is a global phenomenon. Some of the features of teacher education, and of teacher education policy, travel the world. In addition, some of the challenges faced by teacher education and teacher educators are common problems internationally; they seem to be inherent in the task of teacher education. At the same time, teacher education is an intensely local activity. Often highly regulated and closely monitored against a set of locally-specified requirements and shaped by education policy, teacher education is intimately linked to local curricula, communities and concerns.

For teacher educators and researchers there is something to be learned at both these levels: the global and the local. At the global level we can see and understand trends that impact our work, and recognise challenges that are not necessarily a product of our local conditions, but rather a product of the task of teacher education. This recognition can shape practice and responses, and research agendas. At the local level we can see how the conduct of teacher education, and its impact, are shaped by local factors – and how this might apply in our own settings.

The global and the local are not, however, always so easily distinguished. Initiatives that seem to be local responses are often informed by, or borrowed from, global trends. Meeting together to consider global trends and local responses in teacher education gives us a chance to notice and understand the influences on our research and practice. With these insights we can respond in our own places, in ways that take into account the origins of ideas and challenges, making our response more powerful.

The second joint TEFANZ/ATEA conference will be held on the City Campus of the University of Auckland from 8–10 July 2020. There will be a pre-conference day for postgraduate students and early career researchers on 7 July.

For further information: www.tefanzatea2020.nz/

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