Reflections on Changes in Teacher Training for Primary Education in the Czech Republic since 1989

The article is part of the output of the research programme „The Teaching Profession and Changing Demands on Education“. It considers the process of the transformation of teacher training for pri-mary education in the past twenty years in nationwide perspective, and in wider social and political contexts, especially in relation to school reform and educational policy in the field of the teaching profession and teacher training. The article presents the key theoretical starting points: the human-istically child-centred concept of primary education, the professionalisation of the teaching profession and teacher training, the reflective model of teacher training, and constructivist approaches to the develop-ment of the professional identity of students and their creation of their own conception of teaching.
The study focuses on both proclaimed and projected changes (educational policy, theoretical models and conceptions) and also actual changes including attempts to academically test the efficacy of innova-tions. It analyses the basic trends in reform initiatives at education faculties in the CR, and highlights both the positive aspects of development so far, successful innovations from the point of view of the content, pro-cess and organisation of studies, and also problems and critical areas.
The twenty years of development in teacher training for primary education is subdivided into three distinctive periods: (1) first half of the 1990s, (2) second half of the 1990s, and (3) the first decade of the 21st century. Each of these periods is char-acterised from the perspectives mentioned. A retrospective view that takes stock of changes and problems then provides a basis for suggesting the further prospects of this field of education and formulating the main tasks for its continuing development in the coming years.