ABSTRACT
Being and becoming a teacher has experienced a considerable shift during the last decades, due to the changing demands of schools and students, rising discussions and new expectations about the work, the role and, first and foremost, the appropriate qualification of teachers in order to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. Pressure for reconfiguring initial and in-service teacher education is growing considerably as economically developed and developing nations are reforming their educational systems (Jakku-Sihvonen and Niemi 2006). The need for change is multi-faceted. Historical and contextual changes in work organisations, described as a shift away from industrial-era towards post-industrial-era concepts such as ‘co-configuration’ (Victor and Boynton 1998) or ‘knotworking’ (Engeström et al. 1999a), propose fundamental revisions of educational outcomes in response to competition, position and power issues in a globalising market. Given that teacher competencies become increasingly emphasised as a key factor affecting learning, school practices and educational outcomes (Max 1999; Perrenoud 1999; European Commission 2005; Schratz 2005), the quality of teacher training is attracting increasing political attention in Europe (see Peck et al. 2009: 16). These concerns are further intensified by the ongoing Bologna process (for detailed information, please refer to the official website of the European Commission) transforming the European academic landscape at a general structural level as well as by high-stakes accountability policies which begin entering higher education (Craig and Deretchin 2007). While the effectiveness of teacher education programmes comes under public discussion, the argument of this chapter is that reform efforts in initial teacher education (ITE) have to reach beyond academic boundaries and meet change endeavours of in-service teachers in order to develop culturally new patterns of classroom activity. Initiatives to develop a novel learning culture in ITE across institutional boundaries have received
relatively little theoretical or empirical research (Tsui and Law 2007) that could enhance our understanding of systemic change dynamics in and through ITE reforms and underpin further efforts for programme renewals. In this sense, this chapter is focusing on the complex processes of mutual learning in the innovative ITE programme at the University of Luxembourg and the transformative potential of joint learning-for-teaching activities during the semester internship intended for stimulating development across institutional boundaries, both on the organisational and individual level.
