Features of modern university teacher training: The problem of unity and variability of the educational space

The relevance of the analysis of the current state of university teacher training is determined by the necessity to generalize the practical experience that has been developed as a result of the permanent reforming of the higher pedagogical education in the Russian Federation. The study purpose is to identify the features of the system of higher pedagogical education in Russia. This system has developed as a result of the implementation of various modernization projects in the 21st century. The context of the analysis includes the practice developed at the initiative of the Ministry of Education in order to ensure the unity of the educational space for the pedagogical teacher training (“The Core of Higher Pedagogical Education”). The study shows that the modern system of higher pedagogical education, which has a single institutional basis, is built variably from the point of view of the content in universities of different departmental subordination. This, thereby, creates real difficulties in the development of a single teacher-training educational space. The study sample includes experts who are university teachers (n = 55) and school teachers of different subject areas (n = 802) of different ages from different regions of Russia. The study methods (tools) are the methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis of primary data, case analysis of the largest teacher-training universities. Sources of analysis: 1) the data of monitoring universities (2022), which is presented on the open website “Higher Education Monitoring”, 2) cases of the largest teacher-training universities of various departmental subordination, 3) expert assessments by university and school teachers. The results. It has been found out that a distributed model of teacher training in universities of various departmental subordination has developed in Russia as a result of the permanent reforming of pedagogical education throughout the 21st century. This, in turn, contributes to the development of the environment of variability in the search for concepts and technologies in providing pedagogical education. The main conclusions. The study has revealed that there is a contradiction between the objective necessity to preserve the autonomy of universities in terms of conceptualization, design, realization of scientific and educational activities and the idea of developing unified approaches to the structure and content of teacher training (“The Core of Higher Pedagogical Education”). The results obtained are relevant for the coordination of methodological guidelines for further development of the system of higher pedagogical education by the scientific and professional community. This can serve as the basis for developing common approaches to ensuring the unity of teacher training in universities of various departmental subordination.