Kazan Federal University

Abstract

Kazan Federal University (KFU) has one of the longest histories among Russia universities and has contributed significantly to education and science in the country throughout its 212 years. KFU has lived through several transformations since its establishment in 1804, the latest of which started in 2010 and is a part of a wider framework of higher education reforms in Russia. Priority areas for development were identified as part of KFU’s innovation programme – teacher education was one of these. Kazan Federal University is the first classical university in Russia seeking to create a new model of teacher education alongside the previously existing model of teacher training universities that has remained unchanged for several decades. The first stage in this innovation and development process was the merger, in 2011, of two pedagogical universities with KFU, one in Kazan itself and one in Elabuga, a city 200 kilometers to the east of Kazan. It was one of the first such mergers in Russia and as a result of it, KFU became the third largest teacher training institution in the country. KFU is now one of the few Russian universities to offer all the levels of teacher education and teaching majors in all the subjects of the current secondary school curriculum. This chapter charts the transformations that have taken place in teacher education at KFU.