ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that student teacher development incorporates dialogue with the set of educational discourses which provide the framing context for decisions made about teaching and in teaching. It is suggested that, for this dialogue to be effective, it must, first of all, be made explicit. Then, for their development to continue, student teachers must be able to engage with both the practical and theoretical formulations of these discourses. It is the task of subject mentors to facilitate, support and sometimes direct this interactive dialogue. Moreover, since this dialogue is largely conducted using verbal language, the characteristics of the language of each educational discourse must be examined by student teachers and their subject mentors.
