The Palgrave Handbook of Teacher Education in Central and Eastern Europe

Book excerpt: This handbook provides a comprehensive, scholarly overview of teacher education in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), since the fall of communism in 1989. It looks closely at recent trends, emerging practices, and possible futures for teacher education in twenty-one CEE countries – reaching from the Balkans, through the Visegrad Group, to Eastern Europe and the Baltics. The contributing authors reflect on their own countries’ uphill battles and journeys towards modernising teacher education over the last three decades. Subsequently, contemporary teacher education policies, structures, and practices are explored in light of Bologna reforms, EU higher education policies, and globalisation processes. Each chapter also offers some predictions about likely future trajectories – with concrete suggestions on how to develop and improve teacher education systems in response to the growing pressures of neoliberal ideologies. The Palgrave Handbook of Teacher Education in Central and Eastern Europe provides a valuable reference that enriches the work of scholars, students, policymakers, and practitioners across CEE and beyond.