Learning to teach in England and the United States: the evolution of policy and practice [Book review]

At a time when public trust in the teaching profession is under pressure, Learning to teach in England and the United States: The evolution of policy and practice provides a timely report on the shifting policy contexts of teacher education in England and in the United States. The influences of politics on educational policy has brought about global reforms, leading to change and instability, and even uncertainty for the teaching profession. At the heart of these educational reforms is teacher education. The last decade has seen a significant increase of regulatory policy and accountability measures in initial teacher education through the introduction of professional standards, compliancy regulations, compulsory skills testing to qualify as a teacher and standardised assessments for students. This book explores the contested domain of teacher education for secondary teachers in England and in the United States. Through the disparate views of what constitutes quality teaching and quality teacher education, and with the ‘multiplicity of routes into teaching’ (Tatto, Burn, Menter, Mutton, & Thompson, 2018Tatto, M. T., Burn, K., Menter, I., Mutton, T., & Thompson, I. (2018). Learning to teach in England and the United States: The evolution of policy and practice. New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar] , p. 241), the authors reflect on the research that they conducted in the contexts of two countries. The aim of the research was to investigate the effectiveness of professional teacher education in higher educational institutions and in schools. The comparative nature of their study is effective as it presents educational policy in England, as following a clear political agenda within a single entity, and in the United States, where many decisions of teacher education policy are made at the state level