PETER – Political Economy in Teacher Education Research

Because teachers are recognized as the most important factors in improving the quality of education, reforming teacher education is at present at the core of educational policy-making in most countries around the world.

The relationship between higher education and schools under the heading of partnership or collaboration is one of the key dynamics of this form of professional education, yet research in the area has not previously engaged on a systematic basis with concepts such as division of labour or the contradictions between use value and exchange value that are at the heart of a political economy perspective.

PETER is organized around key issues in and around teacher education, critical political economy perspectives and mixed methods. The project is structured as a cooperative global research group put together from distinct national research groups in a satellite organization around these key issues and theoretical resources.

PETER will be a research group offering research opportunities to PhDs, master students and competence development for staff interested in teacher education research. The project also has a long term purpose of creating joint PhD and master’s level courses at each institution.