Global Discourses, Teacher Education Quality, and Teacher Education Policies in the Latin American Region

Highlighting how the quality of education is at the center of global concerns anddiscourses, and the crucial role attributed to teacher education in the global questfor education quality, the chapter discusses quality issues in teacher education thathave arisen in Latin America from the 1990s onward. In doing so, the chapterexamines critically policy initiatives to reform teacher education in this regionover the last two decades as prompted by global trends and issues in globaldiscourses. The themes addressed are the following: (a) teacher education insti-tutional structures and protection/evaluation of their quality, (b) effects of structural changes on recruitment of suitable candidates, (c) curricular balancebetween content knowledge, pedagogy, and practice, (d) preparation for inclusiveteaching, for Indigenous and migrant populations, and (e) digital technologiesand the future of teaching. Analysis of these issues in Latin America, and theirlinks with global imperatives, suggests that the teacher education improvement isa complex undertaking that needs to consider both the characteristics, specific-ities, and problems that prevail in distinct contexts, and what global analysis andexperiences can provide through international studies and policy.