Abstract

Highlighting how the quality of education is at the center of global concerns and discourses, and the crucial role attributed to teacher education in the global quest for education quality, the chapter discusses quality issues in teacher education that have arisen in Latin America from the 1990s onward. In doing so, the chapter examines critically policy initiatives to reform teacher education in this region over the last two decades as prompted by global trends and issues in global discourses. The themes addressed are the following: (a) teacher education institutional structures and protection/evaluation of their quality, (b) effects of structural changes on recruitment of suitable candidates, (c) curricular balance between content knowledge, pedagogy, and practice, (d) preparation for inclusive teaching, for Indigenous and migrant populations, and (e) digital technologies and the future of teaching. Analysis of these issues in Latin America, and their links with global imperatives, suggests that the teacher education improvement is a complex undertaking that needs to consider both the characteristics, specificities, and problems that prevail in distinct contexts, and what global analysis and experiences can provide through international studies and policy.