Grounded in the belief that teachers are central to the task of educating young people, the chapters in this part posit that the improvement of any system of education will necessitate attention to the role, position, and training of teachers. Though emanating from a unified position, the chapters in this part offer a variety of lenses through which it is possible to view the work of teaching and learning to teach within partnership settings.

The first two chapters in this part focus on the preparation of future teachers with an explicit emphasis on developing teachers who are connected to the communities they serve and committed to a stance of social justice and equity. Cross and colleagues use a critical lens to explore the foundations and evolution of teacher residencies as a form of teacher preparation. Their chapter summarizes four reports about teacher residencies published between 2008 and 2022 and exposes the underlying structures that contributed to some teacher residencies perpetuating the very inequities they were designed to alleviate. This emphasis on critical pedagogies and justice-oriented education highlights the importance of classroom teaching that is progressing towards equity, contextually grounded, and responsive to the local community.