Teaching and Research: The Canterbury Declaration and Popper's Legacy for Teacher Educators

Abstract

The year 2004 was a watershed one for teacher education. The first results from the Performance Based Research Fund (PBRF) were announced, a Tertiary Education Commission report suggested that there should be clearer differences between the various tertiary education institutions, and two universities/ colleges of education have merged, with the remaining two pairs in negotiation. These events have brought particularly strong new pressures to bear upon teacher education. Research has assumed greater importance, both as a means to increased productivity and in its role as an underpinning to good teaching. That teaching be research-directed is both a legislative requirement and a philosophical imperative. One of the most elegant justifications is to be found in the Canterbury Declaration of 1945 where the hand of Karl Popper is clearly evident. In this article the legacy of his views for teacher education are explored in relation to PBRF and the institutional mergers.