International Education Studies; Vol. 9, No. 12; 2016 ISSN 1913-9020 E-ISSN 1913-9039 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 219 Responding to the Need for Re-Conceptualizing Second Language Teacher Education: The Potential of a Sociocultural Perspective Minh Hue Nguyen 1 1 Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia Correspondence: Minh Hue Nguyen, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Level 3, Building 6, Clayton Campus, 29 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia. Tel: 61-3-9905-4840. E-mail: minh.hue.nguyen@monash.edu Received: April 8, 2016 Accepted: May 13, 2016 Online Published: November 27, 2016 doi:10.5539/ies.v9n12p219 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ies.v9n12p219 Abstract This paper aims to engage with and respond to recent calls in the literature for a unifying theoretical framework to understand second language teacher education (SLTE). It critically reviews the major conceptualizations of SLTE in relation to the key conceptualizations of second language (L2) teaching. The review identifies shortcomings in traditional perspectives on L2 teaching and SLTE and the need to re-conceptualize SLTE as a field. A recent re-conceptualization of SLTE is seen through the shift towards a social constructivist perspective, a redefinition of the knowledge base, research that responds to the epistemological shift, and a sociocultural perspective on SLTE. The existing literature shows that although there is now a growing body of research that looks into the various dimensions of SLTE, few studies have gained a comprehensive and systematic view of the complexities of SLTE. The paper argues that a sociocultural perspective, especially a combination of Vygotsky’s genetic method and Engeström’s proposal of the third generation of activity theory, has become a powerful way of understanding L2 teacher learning, which corresponds to the need for a re-conceptualization of SLTE. This paper calls for more research using a sociocultural framework to enrich its knowledge base. Keywords: activity theory, constructivist, genetic method, knowledge base, second language teacher education, sociocultural perspective, Vygotsky 1. The Need for a Unifying Conceptualization of SLTE One of the limitations of the literature on teacher education in general and SLTE in particular is the lack of a coherent, shared theory of learning as a lens for a common understanding of teacher education, and this needs to be urgently addressed. Examining contemporary empirical research on teacher education, Borko, Liston, and Whitcomb (2007) noted that the central limitation of interpretive research, which “seeks to describe, analyze, and interpret features of a specific situation, preserving its complexity and communicating the perspectives of participants” (p. 4), is “the lack of shared conceptual frameworks and designs, which makes it a challenging task to aggregate findings and to draw comparisons across studies, even when those studies are of similar phenomena” (p. 5). Given that interpretive research has come to be seen as a better suited paradigm for understanding the complexities of language teacher education, and the field has undergone a shift towards an interpretive paradigm (Johnson, 2009), its limitation mentioned above is characteristic of a major proportion of current research in the field and therefore worth attention. This is in evidence through an extensive review of research on language teacher learning (Borg, 2006) where it is found that in order for the field to move forward, it is imperative to have a broader, coherent conceptual framework to organise our current understanding of teachers’ thinking, knowing, and doing. Borg (2006) succinctly elaborated on the benefits of having such a conceptual framework as follows: [A unifying framework] militates against the accumulation of isolated studies conducted without sufficient awareness of how these relate to existing work; it reminds researchers of key dimensions in the study of language teacher cognition; and it highlights key themes, gaps and conceptual relationships and promotes more focused attention to these. (p. 284) Sharing the aforementioned concern, Barkhuizen and Borg (2010) remarked in an editorial on researching SLTE that although there have been significant advances in research on SLTE, it is “not yet characterised by a well-defined research agenda and a programmatic approach to research” (p. 237). Similarly, according to