Specialized educational knowledge and its role in teacher education

This paper considers arguments for specialized educational knowledge in teacher education and examines difficulties with achieving this, in the context of contemporary reforms to education systems and the production of educational knowledge. The pedagogization of knowledge is a core aspect of teachers’ work and this requires specialized educational knowledge complementary to subject knowledge. Moreover, knowledge of philosophical and sociological debates as to the purpose of education could be considered indispensable for making professional judgements about educational policies, curricula and pedagogic initiatives. However, the idea of a knowledge-rich teacher education is challenged by (i) fragmentation and contestation in the production of educational knowledge and (ii) processes of recontextualization of knowledge for the teacher education curriculum, which are influenced by various conceptions of teaching and the imperatives of educational reform. This is exemplified by brief reference to the English context and international comparative studies of teacher education.