Pre-service teacher education – the linchpin for embedding sustainable, scalable change in education systems

Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski and Adrienne Barnes-Story

Sustainability and scalability are essential to long-term change in education systems. The need for a sharper focus on these issues has become clear over the course of 2025, with the United States’ more than 90% cut in international development aid and substantial reductions by the United Kingdom and other major donor countries.

In response to the recent reductions in international development aid for education, the authors highlight the importance of identifying and developing solutions that can be embedded in national education systems and, critically, are affordable within existing government budgets. They identify formal pre-service teacher education (PSTE) system as the single most promising intervention point in an education system from a sustainability and scalability perspective.

The authors further discuss this approach in the context of two national-scale pre-service teacher education activities funded by USAID: the Transforming Teacher Education Activity in Zambia (2020–2025) and the Strengthening Teacher Education and Practice Activity in Malawi (2022–2025). The authors served as Project Directors for these two activities, leading design, implementation, research and evaluation. These cases demonstrate how PSTE institutions can be effective intervention points for sustainable and scalable education system improvement.

Zuilkowski, SS. & Barnes-Story, A. 2025. Pre-service teacher education – the linchpin for embedding sustainable, scalable change in education systems. What Works Hub for Global Education. Compendium. 2025/001. https://doi.org/10.35489/BSG-WhatWorksHubforGlobalEducation-RP_2025/001