As economies across the world continue to struggle, there is growing evidence that the vulnerable in society, especially children, are paying the greatest cost in terms of reduced opportunities for access to equitable life chances, the most vital of these being education. Juxtaposing the ongoing failure of education systems to address disadvantage with the widespread belief in the vital importance of the training of teachers raises another issue, namely that remarkably little is known about the effective preparation of pre-service teachers to ameliorate educational disadvantage and, additionally, that little attention appears to be given to this in most teacher preparation programmes.

This book attempts to redress this balance and is structured by three themes that focus on national policy, pre-service teacher preparation programmes and individual pre-service teachers. The book reveals a disheartening picture of complex patterns of inequality across and within individual countries, together with an incomplete understanding of the intersectional mechanisms - political, ideological, social and cultural - that link poverty and educational disadvantage. Contributions from five different countries, however, provide evidence of positive signs that interesting, innovative and intellectually sound developments are happening at a local level and offer a valuable contribution to the debate about how teacher education can create levers for change.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Journal of Education for Teaching.

Olwen McNamara is Professor of Education at the University of Manchester, UK. Her research interests are in teacher professional learning, particularly mathematics education, practitioner research and social justice. Nationally, she served on the Executive Council of the British Educational Research Association and as Chair of the Research Committee of the Universities' Council for the Education of Teachers.

Jane McNicholl is an Associate Professor of Science Education at the University of Oxford, UK. Her main research interests have included the development of professional knowledge for teaching secondary science in the school context, policy and practice in initial teacher education and issues of social justice in teacher education.