Historical Consciousness within Teacher Education: Interdisciplinary Synergies in a Neoliberal World

This collection examines the emerging interdisciplinary possibilities at the intersection of the history of education, teacher education and professional practice, responding to the urgent need to confront the influence of neoliberalism on teacher training across Europe and beyond. Building on collaborative work undertaken in Italy, Spain, Turkey and England, it argues that historical consciousness can challenge hegemonic narratives within contemporary teacher education policy and practice. Demonstrating how faculty-based and school-centred training contexts can harness historical consciousness to foster critical, value-based professional agency, chapters present original qualitative research, including stakeholder narratives from academics, teacher educators and trainee teachers. The volume introduces new interdisciplinary methodologies, highlights the risks posed by the erasure of historical narratives in school-led training systems and showcases practical examples of course design, pedagogical innovation and collaborative inquiry that support socially just, inclusive and pluralistic teacher education practices. Historical Consciousness within Teacher Education is written for scholars of education, history of education specialists, university and school-based teacher educators, policymakers and postgraduate or trainee teachers seeking to understand how historical consciousness can strengthen criticality and ethical professionalism in an increasingly neoliberal landscape.