Introduction

Abstract

This book considers the learning opportunities for student teachers when they are on school teaching practice. These opportunities are discussed in relation to the changes in student teacher education in the UK and globally. In England, there are increasingly centralised requirements for teacher education partnerships between schools and providers of student teacher education. The changes in teacher education have placed and continue to place schools in a more prominent and influential role with regard to student teacher learning. Research in teacher education highlights the importance of schools in the student teacher learning process and the difficulties inherent in enabling learning opportunities for practitioners and student teachers in the classroom (Edwards et al., 2002). Believing in the need for research evidence to inform practice (Douglas, 2012), the book derives from extensive observations of and interviews with practitioners involved in teacher education. My general approach to the text comes from the need to increase understanding of not only the definition of student teacher learning but how key ideas within the concept are applied to learning opportunities in schools and school subject departments. The book develops and analyses the substantive issue of learning opportunities for student teachers in their teaching practice as well as explores the benefits of a rich ethnographic research process.