Search and research: teacher education for contemporary contexts

The present volume represents a compilation of international teacher education practice and research with a focus on Teacher Education for Contemporary Contexts. It draws upon the diverse educational perspectives, teaching procedures, knowledge, and situated contexts where the discipline takes shape. The sections of this book comprise research papers accepted for presentation during the 18th International Study Association on Teachers and Teaching (ISATT) Biennial Conference that will take place from July 3rd to July 7th in Salamanca, Spain. Around 300 delegates from 57 countries across the globe and a large Scientific Committee of 80 colleagues have contributed academically and professionally to support our ability to share the contents of this volume. The main conference topic is search and research. Searching is the action of looking carefully at people, objects, and situations in order to find something concealed or to discover something beyond the ordinary. This is what teachers do in their classrooms and, primarily, search represents their endeavours to construct professional knowledge as a result of developing practice. Researching is systematic inquiry that intends to discover new knowledge and/or to refute educational theories, a process typically rendered by teacher educators and other researchers. The focus of this 18th biennial ISATT conference is to bring together both search and research, connecting practice and theory (or praxis), with the purpose of offering relevant solutions to realistic classroom problems. The editorial process followed three differentiated phases: The first phase required abstract submission with the purpose of being accepted for the conference. A double (or triple) blind review was conducted to evaluate whether the papers submitted were suitable for the conference. A rate of 87% of the papers were accepted for presentation. The second phase encouraged authors to voluntarily submit a full paper of 3,000 words. A total of 111 full papers were then subjected to an open review process with the main purpose of suggesting to authors ways of further improving the presentation of their valuable research. A third phase, not yet completed and therefore beyond the scope of this book, was the review and selection of the outstanding papers, papers that were deemed eligible for the post-proceeding publication (i.e., less than 15% of the total). The central intent of the book is to contribute to fostering scholarly discussions and to inform future teaching trajectories, strengthen lines of research in teacher education and demonstrate the opportunities and constraints in our professional work. Its added value highlights the commonplace in international research that serves to depict how the field of teacher education is moving forward in an increasingly global society. All in all, teachers, teacher educators and researchers learn by effective communication processes, whether in in personal/professional interactions or in the use of digital technologies. Positive interactions lead to building strong communities of learners, which in turn, leads to the production of valuable knowledge and better understandings about learning and teaching. With the upcoming commemoration of its 800th anniversary in the year 2018, the University of Salamanca, as the oldest university in operation in Spain, is proud to host the ISATT 18th biennial conference and to support the exceptional work of many researchers in the field of Teacher Education by compiling and editing the work in this volume. Furthermore, the local Organizing Committee and the ISATT Executive Committee hope you will experience a rewarding intellectual experience as a result of your contributions and knowledge, as both academics and practitioners. Thank you very much for providing us this exciting opportunity to work with you. We warmly welcome you to Salamanca a truly historic and a contemporary context!