Merger, Mana, Scholarship and Power: Four Perspectives of Issues Impacting on Quality in Teacher Education in the Merger of College of Education with University

Abstract

The merger of the Christchurch College of Education with the University of Canterbury on January 1, 2007 was the pivotal point of major change for academic staff in the College, and focused a number of areas of contested values. This article is a collection of four narratives of that change, each examining a particular issue. Each of the narratives tells the story of a particular struggle to preserve an aspect of the overall quality of teacher education, and also foreshadows an ongoing philosophical and political engagement in the years that will follow the merger. The weaving of the four narratives seeks to capture a sense of the multiplicity of professional concerns that are experienced by professional educators and that are contested in the process of merger. This article comes from the perspective of academic staff from the former College of Education and in its use of personal voices reflects the lived experience of wrestling with change and sometimes perceived threat. However it has implications for other merged colleges of education, and for teacher education as a whole.