The Second Working Conference on Research in Teacher Education in Canada was held at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, on 7-9 November 2008. Teacher education researchers from 22 Canadian universities and a representative from the Manitoba Ministry of Education, Citizenship and Youth attended the conference. About sixty percent of the attendees had also attended the First Working Conference in 2007.

The First Working Conference in 2007 provided - based on participants' feedback - an excellent opportunity for teacher education researchers from across Canada to meet, build relationships, and discuss research needs and possibilities in the area of teacher education in Canada. The Second Working Conference was to build on the previous conference by moving from last year's presentations and discussions toward specific research projects on teacher edcuation in Canada that would address some of the identified needs and possibilities. At the Second Working Conference participants were asked to commit to working on projects and research that they would develop and plan at the conference. In order to focus the work by the participants, we concentrated on two of the six themes of last year's conference, namely on

• Teacher education program design and reform
• The education of teacher educators

As it turned out, the comprehensiveness of particularly the first theme had some of the other themes from last year play a role in the work at the conference as well.

In order to facilitate the working groups at the conference, we invited those who were planning to attend the Second Working Conference to respond to two questions prior to the begin of the conference:

1. What do you see as the top 3 questions that need to be addressed with respect to the two themes of the conference?
2. Describe up to 3 research topics (related to our two themes) that you would be willing to explore in collaboration with others attending the conference.

In particular the responses to the first question have value beyond the planning of the conference, since they articulate the view of Canadian teacher education researchers about research needs for teacher education in the Canadian context. For that reason we have provided a structured list of those responses as a document of value in itself:

Based on participants' responses to the second question, five working groups were planned for the conference. Clicking on a working group lable or a working group link on the right column will link you to a webpage with the report by the respective working group.

Working Group I:  Purpose of and in Teacher Education

Working Group II:  Program Reform and Design

Working Group III:  Teacher Educators

Working Group IV:  Linking University and Schools

Working Group V: The Political Context of Teacher Education Programs

 

The Second Working Conference on Research in Teacher Education in Canada would not have been possible without the very generous financial contribution by the Faculty of Education at Queen's University (FoE) through its Dean Rosa Bruno-Jofré. We are also very grateful for the generous financial support of the conference by the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE).

 

Thomas Falkenberg (University of Manitoba)

Tom Russell (Queen's University) 

Hans Smits (University of Calgary)