EuropeanConfusiononteacherquality-ATEE.docVIP

Teacher quality in Europe: comparing formal descriptions Marco Snoek Christopher Clouder Julie de Ganck Katarina Klonari Peter Lorist Hana Lukasova Elisabeth Nilsen Cirila Peklaj Birgit Pfeifer Elzbieta Putkiewitz J?ran Rehn Vladimira Spilkova As the quality of the teacher is the most important in-school factor influencing the quality of the learning of pupils, national and European governments develop policies to ensure that teachers meet certain minimum standards. In the development and implementation of such policies national authorities use their legislative authority by formalizing those standards through legislation, white papers and formal regulations. On the European level the European Council has no legislative authority. Statements about teacher quality on the European level are therefore included in policy recommendations and in shared statements by national ministers. In recent years the cooperation between member states, the sharing and exchange of policy practices and the use of comparative benchmarking in the area of education has increased. Also co-operation on the levels of schools and teacher education institutes and the mobility of teachers is increasing. In this common European educational arena, there is a need for the development of a common language with respect to teacher quality. In this paper we will compare formal national and European documents addressing teacher quality to see if such a common language emerges. The study, comparing 4 European documents and 9 national documents, shows that such a common language does not exist. The concepts used to identify teacher quality show a wide variety, also the elaboration of teacher quality in formal documents varies widely. To support effective exchange of policy practices between member states, to increase mobility of teachers and to facilitate international cooperation between schools and teacher education institutes, a consensus on the main elements of teacher quality is needed. The quality