Conclusion: Caledonian Teacher Education Futures

Abstract

This chapter attempts to conclude this periodised collection by contemplating the future of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Scotland over a timeframe of the next 10–20 years. It develops a framework of antecedents of change drawn from the accounts, analysis and milestones presented in the preceding chapters. Five main wellsprings of change are articulated reflecting how teacher preparation has been cast and influenced by politics, economic circumstances, changes in the sociocultural order, important shifts in the intellectual climate together with the decisions and actions of institutional or individual actors. Using the framework, three scenarios for the future of teacher education in Scotland are sketched out in brief. Futurologists and strategic thinkers have used the development of scenarios as a technique or method to contend with multiple conceivable possibilities and to contain the unpredictability of possible futures. The scenarios presented in this chapter are offered as a stimulus for future-orientated thinking and action. The final section highlights dimensions of ITE that are tangibly within the reach of teacher educators in forging a future in which Scotland remains, in a context of global comparison, a jurisdiction providing ITE of the highest quality.