Chapter 11: Teaching for Student Agency: A Praxis Inquiry Approach to Teacher Education

In the context of a rapidly changing world, how are we to prepare teachers to meet the learning needs of young people when they will not graduate for another four years? What does it mean to be a beginning teacher in 2007? How can teacher educators know what the classroom will be like in 2010 and beyond?

If social forecasters and commentators are correct, then the world of work and leisure is changing rapidly: new jobs, more travel, increased opportunities abound for young people in the coming years. We are also aware of new social, ecological, and economic dilemmas that confront society every day: globalization, individualism, cosmopolitan pluralism, and political agency are some identified by Giddens (1998) as he pondered the way forward for social democracies.