Chapter 12: The Thorny Issue of Time

In initial teacher education (ITE) there is interest in developing the use of lesson study as it is seen as a positive tool for aiding student-teachers in developing their pedagogic understanding and practice. However, there are often concerns about the potential sustainability of lesson study in teacher preparation programmes which are already very intensive, requiring a great deal of work from school-based mentors and university tutors as well as student-teachers. This intensity leads to a number of competing priorities and a belief that the time taken to complete lesson study projects is not sustainable in the long term. In this chapter the author discusses how a consideration of the complex nature of time can help reframe the issues of sustainability of lesson study projects in ITE contexts. A number of studies from the literature are used to exemplify how a consideration of how the amount of time needed to complete a project and the rhythms of the school year, can lead to the use of different approaches to lesson study which are sensitive to the timescapes of any given context.