Initial Teacher Education in Southern Africa

Teacher education has received a lot of attention worldwide and southern Africa is no exception. The major concern associated with it has been what must be taught to student teachers, how it must be conducted and the duration of the training. The challenge has consistently been how best to train teachers who will possess cutting-edge content knowledge and be able to pedagogise that knowledge in order to inspire deep and meaningful learning. The book hinges on how the cooperating/mentor teachers, who essentially are school teachers in charge of supporting and inducting student teachers/mentees during the teaching practicum, can be trained in order to efficiently support and guide the students in their quest to becoming effective teachers. It provides research-based approaches to identifying cooperating/mentor teachers' instructional and supervisory needs. The findings are that trained cooperating teachers/mentors are motivated and have a grounded understanding of teaching, guidance and how to induct student teachers/mentees and neophyte teachers into the art of teaching.