The overarching rationale for comparative studies research in education is to promote local understanding through international analysis and cooperation. In the area of science teacher education, there is only one significant and recent publication that addresses science teacher education from an international perspective. This paper builds upon this seminal work and fills a void in science educational research by reporting on a comparative analysis of elementary science teacher preparation programs across three different contexts: Australia, Brazil, and Canada. Specifically, the research focus was to provide a qualitative analysis of the similarities and differences through a comparison of science teacher certification policy and general institutional program requirements of a specific jurisdiction within each nation. Emerging from these analyses were a number of coherent similarities, highlighting common structural and functional mechanisms underpinning teacher education preparation. The findings from this study bode well for future comparative studies research of science teacher education.
Science education; Teacher education; Comparative studies
