Teacher education market and the constitution of the professional teacher

Abstract

This chapter presents results of researches on teacher education and its contemporary outlines and challenges. It brings together data from bibliographic reviews, documental analyses and empirical studies conducted by the authors or under their supervision. The analysis starts from the assumption that a market has been consolidated around Education in the country, with important repercussions to teacher education and to teachers themselves. This market is grounded in at least two discursive trends present in the productions of national and international experts, in the guidelines and orientations given by international organisms and in legal documents. On the one hand, these discourses highlight the centrality of teachers in contemporary societies and, on the other they establish a direct relation between the (low) quality of public education systems and the (low) quality of teacher education. Simultaneously to the consolidation of the teacher education market, the educational field has been dealing with a process of universitarization, which means to bring up to higher education level the minimum requirement for all teachers at all educational levels in the country. In this scenario, the professional teacher appears as the main product of the teacher education market; a product that achieves in this market a high exchange value, encouraging investments and disputes.