ABSTRACT
The country reports clearly indicate that the nature and context of teacher education have changed enormously in the last decade. The picture is one of educational systems where schools, at all levels, are being asked to prepare students who are both more broadly and deeply educated than at any other time in human history. At the same time, the nature of school populations is undergoing massive change as more students stay on to complete a full secondary schooling and as societal expectations about what they will learn change. As societies have sought to re-create schools so that they are equipped to educate for the twenty-first century, it is now recognised as axiomatic that teachers are at the heart of educational improvement and teacher educators are essential to the process.
