The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between school culture and opportunities to learn to teach (OTLT) in Ireland and Poland drawing on insights from a cross-national study of learning to teach. In particular, we focus on teacher education at system and school levels and its role in creating and sustaining integrated professional learning cultures to support teacher education at initial and induction phases of the continuum. The impetus for this study was based on the considerable differences in OTLT which emerged from the nine-country cross-national study between the two countries. As such, this paper provides a more in-depth study two countries cogniscent of the insights from the nine-country study. Findings are presented under the following headings: new expectations for teacher education, new professional trajectories, incremental assumption of responsibility, debate about the role of schools in teacher education and fostering conversation between novices and accomplished teachers. Significantly we make a case for the importance of conceptualising emerging trends in both jurisdictions, as a case study of the development of integrated professional learning cultures vis-à-vis the continuum of professional education as central to understanding teacher education review and reform internationally.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay between school culture and opportunities to learn to teach (OTLT) in Ireland and Poland drawing on insights from a cross-national study of learning to teach. In particular, we focus on teacher education at system and school levels and its role in creating and sustaining integrated professional learning cultures to support teacher education at initial and induction phases of the continuum. The impetus for this study was based on the considerable differences in OTLT which emerged from the nine-country cross-national study between the two countries. As such, this paper provides a more in-depth study two countries cogniscent of the insights from the nine-country study. Findings are presented under the following headings: new expectations for teacher education, new professional trajectories, incremental assumption of responsibility, debate about the role of schools in teacher education and fostering conversation between novices and accomplished teachers. Significantly we make a case for the importance of conceptualising emerging trends in both jurisdictions, as a case study of the development of integrated professional learning cultures vis-à-vis the continuum of professional education as central to understanding teacher education review and reform internationally.