Transforming Teacher Preparation Across Nations

See how the iSTEP Institute has transformed teacher preparation around the world.

The contributors to this volume document and analyze the evolution of an international, organic network of collaborating teacher educators. Educators at the Stanford Teacher Education Program launched the iSTEP Institute, a professional learning and development program for teacher educators from across the globe. This international movement seeks to construct and implement exemplary teacher preparation. Chapter authors argue that there are several shortcomings with how we currently conceptualize (1) the nature of reform in teacher education, (2) the role of theory in transforming educational institutions, and (3) the transnational diffusion of innovation and best practices in teaching and teacher education. They articulate a new formulation of effective systemic reform.

This book shows how the iSTEP Institute has been a reform catalyst for teacher preparation by embedding and transforming the key institutional components of universities, NGOs, foundations, schools, and school governance. Case examples demonstrate how the activities of this reform network have transformed teacher education in several nations across the global north and south.

Book Features:

• Identifies key design principles for consequential teacher preparation on a global level.
• Offers case examples that demonstrate the power and transferability of design principles across social, political, and cultural contexts.
• Elevates the power of organic, relational networks as a catalyst and engine for effective reform in teacher education.
• Draws on principles of teacher preparation from the iSTEP Institute and the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) whose model of preparation is internationally renowned.
• Demonstrates how effective school/university partnerships can evolve to support long-term reform in teacher preparation.
• Lotan directed STEP for over a decade; Lit is the current faculty director; LeTendre worked with the Program for Complex Instruction during his time at Stanford.
• Contributors include leading scholars of teacher education from around the world, all of whom participated in the iSTEP Institute.

Gerald LeTendre holds the Harry Lawrence Batschelet II Chair of Educational Administration for the College of Education at Penn State. Ira Lit is faculty director of STEP and a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Rachel A. Lotan is professor emerita and the former director of the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) at the Stanford Graduate School of Education.

"This book is testimony to the power of collaborative professional learning across international borders to imagine, innovate, implement, and sustain exemplary teacher preparation. Through careful documentation and portraits of practice, the authors illuminate how research-based principles of effective teacher preparation can ignite meaningful change in teachers and teaching in multiple world contexts."
—A. Lin Goodwin, Thomas More Brennan Professor of Education, Boston College

"This book highlights a cross-national network of teacher preparation programs that implemented equity-oriented principles in various countries. It showcases the power of collaboration in improving teacher education, and emphasizes the importance of context and adapting principles to different settings."
—Ken Zeichner, Boeing Professor of Teacher Education Emeritus, University of Washington, and emeritus professor, University of Wisconsin—Madison

“At a time of accelerating globalization of teacher policy, this volume is essential reading for all policymakers and teacher educators interested in thinking together about the conditions for powerful teacher professional development committed to equity and excellence and the sustainable implementation of teacher education reforms in diverse national and local contexts.”
—Xavier Dumay, professor of education policies, UCLouvain, Belgium