Published Paper Details:

The four-year Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) introduced under the National Education Policy 2020 represents a paradigm shift in teacher education by integrating disciplinary knowledge with pedagogy and practice to prepare professionally competent teachers for different school stages. Within this framework, the Content cum Pedagogy course on World Around Us (TWAU) at the preparatory stage is an important course that integrates environmental, social, cultural, and scientific understandings through experiential and multidisciplinary learning. The preparatory stage emphasises activity-based, discovery-oriented, and contextually grounded learning processes, requiring teachers to design developmentally appropriate and inquiry-driven classroom experiences. This paper systematically analyses the professional preparedness and needs of teacher educators for the effective teaching of the ITEP Content-Pedagogy course on TWAU at the preparatory stage. Drawing upon policy guidelines, curriculum frameworks, and research insights on teacher education, the paper identifies the required competencies, knowledge domains and pedagogical orientations among teacher educators for effective teacher preparation and proposes a conceptual framework highlighting three interrelated dimensions- deeper curricular understanding, pedagogical expertise, and professional preparation of teacher educators. The paper contributes by integrating research insights with curriculum expectations and strengthening teacher education discourse by providing a roadmap for preparing competent teachers and teacher educators.