Prospective teachers build their capabilities for teaching-learning practices through the critical spaces that pre-service teacher education programmes provide them. The curricular, pedagogical and assessment practices of teacher education programme allow for student teachers to recognise teaching as multi-faceted and a complex endeavour.

Often, teaching about teaching is over-simplified or very poorly understood. It is often explained as similar to school teaching. The pedagogical work of teacher educators involves representing teaching as it occurs in the school classroom to their student teachers and simultaneously building a pedagogical relationship with these adult learners. Therefore, they have an obligatory responsibility towards both school and higher education, which makes the work of teacher educators also extremely complex and intricate.

In the last decade, some of the educational documents laid a firm foundation for strengthening the directions for the current reforms in education. The National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF 2005), National Curriculum Framework for Teacher Education. (NCFTE 2009) and Justice Verma Commission Report (2012) underscored the crucial need for a process-based teacher education system to effectively shape the teaching – learning process in school classrooms. 

These frameworks envisioned teachers as thoughtful, reflective individuals whose primary task is to facilitate children in constructing meaning from their experiences. In recent times, the National Educational Policy (NEP 2020) has made a salient call for the rejuvenation of the teacher education system as a path to recover the lost status of the teaching profession. 

The National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE 2023) lays out explicit vision, principles, perspectives and strategies for the school education of the country. Further, the framework for Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) and the model teacher education syllabi for various stages have furthered the vision of the NEP. 

All these documents suggest pedagogical reimagination of teacher education classrooms as key to influencing the professional lives of student-teachers. These policies and curriculum frameworks may provide the necessary impetus to prepare competent, well-qualified, professional, and humane teachers. 

Recognising this, a crucial avenue for progress involves a focused effort on developing teacher education pedagogy through the continuous professional development of teacher educators, offering promising pathways towards achieving the desired goals and fostering a transformative impact on teacher education practices in India.

What’s in store

The Summer Course recognises the growing need to deepen the discourse on pedagogy in teacher education and therefore, builds upon the strides made in previous years and offers opportunities for enhancing pedagogical imagination and judgements in teacher education classrooms. 

This summer course scheduled from 3 – 8 June 2024 will delve into the nuanced aspects of various themes related to curriculum and pedagogy and will provide a dedicated platform for an immersive exploration of both the theoretical underpinnings and practical dimensions of pedagogical practice in teacher education. 

We aspire to facilitate a shared, constructive view of pedagogical practices by fostering an environment conducive to open discussion and engaging activities.

The Summer Course will be in the form of seminar workshops. The morning sessions of the Summer Course will include talks and discussions on themes such as analysis of curriculum/​syllabi of different pre-service teacher education programmes, designing practicums, understanding the space of self-development workshops in pre-service programmes; reading with student teachers, understanding their emotions and values as adult learners, and seeking alternatives to textbooks in pre-service programmes.

The afternoon sessions will have presentations by participating teacher educators, a panel discussion and engagement in various arts and aesthetics sessions. These presentations will be based on pre-summer coursework that teacher educators will be expected to carry out. 

• Interested participants must be currently serving in a teacher education programme at a recognised higher education institution. 
• Participating institutions are requested to fill in the Google form with a Statement of Purpose (SOP) of about 500 words stating your interests and the relevance of topics to be explored in the Summer Course for your current work. 
• The selection will be based on the SOPs submitted. Only one member will be allowed to participate from an institution.
• The selection will be based on the SOPs submitted through the Google form. 

The selected participants will be provided travel reimbursement to the extent of 3‑tier AC train fare from their nearest railway station (excluding local conveyance). The University will provide food and lodging for the duration of the summer course.