Teacher Education and its Policies in Australia: Making Space for a New Urban Education Project

Overview & Synopsis

This article suggests some reasons why an urban education project in Australia might inform current debates surrounding teacher education. The first section provides a brief overview of the Australian education system from 1950--1980 as a way of introducing the larger historical context in which teacher education is situated. The second part describes the Centre for the Study of Urban Education at La Trobe University, and more specifically, a project called the City Educational Taskforce. The author explores why this has been the only initiative to study urban education, and offers an explanation of how the concept of "rurality," rather than "urbanity," is of particular significance to education in Australia. The final part of the article discusses how disciplinary knowledge and pedagogical knowledge are currently at odds in programs of teacher education. Suggestions are offered for (re)imagining teacher education through a blurring of institutional boundaries.