The preparation of teachers, and their continuing education is recognised to be crucial for the improvement of education. Professionals working with teachers need to have sufficient understanding of perspectives, policies and practices related to teaching and teacher education. The overall aim of the course is to engage students with perspectives about the practice of teaching, teacher identity, teacher learning and the systems and institutional arrangements that support professional development. The course provides a broad framework for understanding teachers’ work and their development as situated within the social, economic, cultural, political, and policy contexts in India. One of the core objectives of the course is to develop a conceptual understanding of teacher professional development. Developing a perspective about teacher professional development is strongly tied to an understanding of notions of teaching and the role of a teacher. Therefore, the second larger aim of the course is to help students gain a nuanced understanding of various conceptions of teaching, teachers’ work and identity, and how teachers learn. A third objective of the course is to help students to critically examine the structures, policies and practices of pre-service and continuing teacher education in India. Importantly, students will have the opportunity to assist in designing and evaluating some aspects of teacher development programmes. As this course will be offered during the field practice engagement in semester 3, it will provide rich opportunities for making linkages between the concepts and ideas in the course with the
everyday experiences of students while they are working in a school setting and interacting with teachers.