Realistic clinical practice: proposing an inquiry-based pedagogy for teacher education

There is a broad international consensus that quality of teaching is fundamental for the development of high quality schools and educational systems. In this chapter I will argue that teacher education as a sector, particularly in England, would be strengthened considerably by adopting an explicit pedagogy. The meaning of the term ‘pedagogy’ varies considerably between languages and cultures and for the purposes of this chapter and locating my argument primarily within England I will adopt Alexander’s definition: ‘Pedagogy is the act of teaching together with its attendant discourse. It is what one needs to know, and the skills one needs to command, in order to make and justify the many different kinds of decisions of which teaching is constituted.’ (Alexander 2004: 11) Working within this definition it is important to note that Alexander positions ‘curriculum’ as subsidiary to pedagogy but as one of its central domains. I propose that teacher education providers should adopt and work towards implementing an explicit pedagogy for initial teacher education based on the ‘Clinical Practice’ model but that is adapted to become the ‘Realistic Clinical Practice’ model. This proposed pedagogy for teacher education resolves some of the misunderstandings that policy makers and other stakeholders have held when applying the ‘Clinical Practice’ model to the field of teacher education.