Pre-service teacher education in the postmodern state

Over the past thirty years more than one hundred teaching and teacher education inquiries have been published in Australia. Despite each of these documents having made recommendations for reform it has been claimed that change has been limited. Moreover, teacher educators have been criticised for lacking the ability to change. The author of this study challenged this assertion and sought to investigate its accuracy. To explore the claim of minimal change the researcher framed the study design around pre-service teacher education reforms. The following three questions underpinned the investigation. 1) What recommendations were made? 2) What recommendations were implemented? 3) Why were some recommendations implemented and others not? Combining document and life history research offered the researcher an innovative and novel approach to identify barriers to change in teacher education. The findings of this study address the claim that change to pre-service education has been limited and adds to the existing body of literature centred on policy formation and implementation in teacher education.