Teacher education refers to the policies and procedures designed to equip teachers with the skills and knowledge that they need to carry out their tasks effectively.  This education will also ideally give teachers the attitudes and behaviors necessary to perform these tasks in the best way possible in any number of different and varying circumstances.  Teacher education organisations are set up all around the world in an attempt to set up standard models and systems that can be used to train teachers effectively.  These organisations are needed so that education infrastructures can be made relevant to the particular needs of a geographical region and culture.

Europe has long enjoyed being one of the most culturally recognised regions of the world, having produced some of the oldest and most distinguished art, music and literature in existence.  Education standards in Europe have also lived up to this promise of excellence and are generally very well respected on a world wide scale.  While there are many similarities among European nations, there are also lots of differences due to historical, political and social reasons.  With the impact of the European Union the question is often asked as to what exactly it means to be European, and this question can also translate to teacher training within the continent.

Because of differences in language and cultures, any collective sense of teacher training in Europe has to do with the co-operation between different states rather than the integration of them.  The Thematic Network for Teaching Education in Europe (TNTEE) is one organisation that encourages this cooperation between nation states and helps lead them towards a harmonised and beneficial education policy.  The main focus of the TNTEE is to establish a multi-lingual forum for the development of teacher training in which all nations and languages are represented.

In July 2008 the European commission gave out its annual report on how the key aspects of education and training have been developing in Europe.  The conclusion of this report was that Europe as a whole was making improvements in four out of five key areas of student development, and that in these four areas the benchmarks set were exceeded easily.  This is a good sign for teacher training standards in Europe as they have obviously been successful in most areas.

Since 1995 the European Union has given its support to a number of research projects that address a wide range of different topics in education and training.  The European Union has two distinctive types of policies to improve the quality of education and training systems across the continent, including those of teacher education.  The first is to encourage each nation to develop its own education policy but to be open about its implementation so that all nations can learn from one another.  The second is to actively support exchanges and cross cultural networks between different nations.  Both of these policies are important to make sure that teachers across the continent can have a good groundwork for successfully meeting the goals that have been set for the education of Europe.