Education concepts and teacher education in a European perspective

Education concepts and teacher education in a European perspective is the second volume in the Education in Europe – Education for Europe book series of the Center for European Education. The volume is the result of the TEMPUS IV project „Modernizing Teacher Education in a European Perspective“, in the framework of which experts from Western and Southeast European universities look into the possibilities of giving the curricula and structures of national teacher education systems a European dimension and the ways of modernising teacher education in that respect.

Aspects which have been critically examined here range from studies on (national) teacher education, social theory foundations of teacher education, the relationship between national reforms of teacher education and the establishment of a European education area, as well as professional education, to the papers offering perspectives from different disciplines on the topics of intercultural education and the preservation of (European) multilingualism in study programmes, teaching and research.

In relation to the issue of European education the following, among other challenges, need to be tackled: Critical reflection on education goals and content could be suppressed by a technology-focused narrowing of education; Anglicisation  deemed as internationalisation of communication in science and research is taking place at the expense of diversity in research, and diversity of languages and cultures in public education could be limited by narrowed-down language options.