Mapping permission to teach in initial teacher education: a learning ecologies perspective

Internationally, and more recently in Australia, teacher workforce issues and a focus on Initial Teacher Education reform have seen a rapid expansion of alternative teacher preparation arrangements. These arrangements include the employment of preservice teachers as paid practising teachers while simultaneously completing their studies. In contexts such as Queensland, Australia, these emergent arrangements involve a complex system of stakeholders including schools, universities, employment sectors, and regulatory authorities. Despite the potential impact on practising preservice teachers’ experiences, this system of stakeholders remains largely under-conceptualised. Applying ecological and systems theory, we conceptualise the practising preservice teacher system. Drawing on activities and reflections collected from Queensland-based and national stakeholders during a ‘Roundtable discussion of preservice teachers teaching in Initial Teacher Education’, we illustrate opportunities and challenges for stakeholders that such an inherently complex system evokes. This study offers an internationally relevant and innovative systemic approach to understanding alternative teacher preparation arrangements.