Pathways Into Teacher Education

Teacher educator learning has received increasing attention in recent decades. Although the professional development needs of teacher educators has become more visible, the spaces where teacher educators learn to teach teachers is less clear. How do teacher educators learn? What do they learn? And where does this learning take place? This edited volume provides answers these questions through an unpacking of the programs, courses, and professional learning spaces in which beginning teacher educators learn. In this edited volume, chapters provide profiles, or “cases,” of the spaces in which beginning university-based teacher educators are prepared. University based teacher educator learning occurs in a range of settings. As highlighted in this volume, such learning spaces include doctoral program concentrations or minors focused on the development of teacher educator identity and practice; individual doctoral courses dedicated to teacher education; formalized program experiences that assist in the preparation of teacher educators; and mentoring or critical friendship collaborations through which doctoral students learn about teacher education with peers or from experienced teacher educators.

Teachers make a difference. The success of any plan for improving educational outcomes depends on the teachers who carry it out and thus on the abilities of those attracted to the field and their preparation. Yet there are many questions about how teachers are being prepared and how they ought to be prepared. Yet, teacher preparation is often treated as an afterthought in discussions of improving the public education system. Preparing Teachers addresses the issue of teacher preparation with specific attention to reading, mathematics, and science. The book evaluates the characteristics of the candidates who enter teacher preparation programs, the sorts of instruction and experiences teacher candidates receive in preparation programs, and the extent that the required instruction and experiences are consistent with converging scientific evidence. Preparing Teachers also identifies a need for a data collection model to provide valid and reliable information about the content knowledge, pedagogical competence, and effectiveness of graduates from the various kinds of teacher preparation programs. Federal and state policy makers need reliable, outcomes-based information to make sound decisions, and teacher educators need to know how best to contribute to the development of effective teachers. Clearer understanding of the content and character of effective teacher preparation is critical to improving it and to ensuring that the same critiques and questions are not being repeated 10 years from now.

For decades teacher education researchers, organizations, and policy makers have called for improving teacher education by creating clinically based preparation programs (e.g. CAEP, 2013; Goodlad, 1990; Holmes, 1986, 1995; National Association for Professional Development Schools, 2008; National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Educators, 2001, 2010; Zeichner, 1990). According to the NCATE Blue Ribbon Report (2010), this approach requires extensive opportunities for prospective teachers to connect and apply what they learn from school and university based teacher educators. Similar to preparing medical professionals, clinical practice in teacher education requires the complex and time intensive work of supporting teacher candidate ability to link theory, research, and practice as well as on-going inquiry into best pedagogical practices. Therefore, clinically intensive programs expect prospective teachers to blend practitioner and academic knowledge throughout their programs as "they learn by doing" (NCATE, 2010, p.ii). However, most of the literature to date on clinical practice has been conceptual and often relies on describing program design. The purpose of this book is move past description to study and understand what teacher education programs are learning from research about innovative clinical models of teacher education. Each book chapter highlights research about how programs are studying a variety of outcomes of clinical practice. After an introductory chapter that helps to define and situate clinical practice in teacher education, the book is organized into four sections: (1) Outcomes of New Roles, (2) Outcomes of New Practices, (3) Outcomes of New Coursework/Fieldwork Configurations, and (4) Outcomes of New Program Configurations. The book wraps up with a discussion that looks across the chapters to find common themes, share implications for teacher educators, and set the course for future research.

Over the past 20 years, alternative certification for teachers has emerged as a major avenue of teacher preparation. The proliferation of new pathways has spurred heated debate over how best to recruit, prepare, and support qualified teachers. Alternative Routes to Teaching provides a thorough and dispassionate review of the research evidence on alternative certification. It takes readers beyond the simple dichotomies that have characterized the debate over alternative certification, encourages them to look carefully at the trade-offs implicit in any route into teaching, and suggests ways to “marry” the proven strengths of both traditional and alternative approaches.

In this compelling and timely collection, Eric Wearne and a group of diverse contributors make the case for a new approach to teacher preparation and certification, in which institutions are empowered to educate, prepare, certify, hire, and develop teachers who have been prepared by different educational traditions. In the first part, contributors offer a background in history, policy, and economics to argue the need for more creativity in teacher preparation. In the second part, Wearne and contributors showcase how a variety of different, creative educational organizations have prepared teachers more clearly suited to their specific school models— from Montessori teacher preparation, to teaching online, to teaching in classical schools. Overall, this collection prompts those involved in teacher preparation to work to find creative solutions for improving teacher education, certification, and hiring and is relevant for scholars, policymakers, educators, and administrators working in or studying teacher education programs.

Teacher learning doesn’t end with initial preparation; many insights and skills remain to be added. This book is concerned with ongoing teacher learning, its goals (Part I) and pathways (Part II). It is based on a longitudinal study of 42 teachers: 20 over their first 8 years of teaching and 22 over their first 5 years. The areas of continued teacher learning identified in our study were: vision of teaching, program planning, assessment, relevance, subject content and pedagogy, classroom organization and community, inclusion, and professional identity. The pathways of learning included informal and formal PD, teacher inquiry, and school-based learning. A key finding of our research was that, over the years, teachers learn a great deal informally. However, they do so largely on their own and under considerable stress. Teachers need more support than they currently receive, both for survival and to enhance their informal learning. Teachers can benefit significantly from external input, but their everyday learning makes them key “experts” in teaching. Accordingly, PD providers should work with teachers, utilizing their existing knowledge. This book is written for consideration by teachers, student teachers, teacher educators, PD providers, policy developers, and others interested in facilitating teacher learning. Some of us have been writing – somewhat desperately – on these ideas for years. Beck and Kosnik have given us strong evidence that the ideas are effective in practice. I hope this persuasive and beautifully written book will be widely read.Nel Noddings, Lee Jacks Professor of Education Emerita, Stanford University This book makes a powerful case for taking teachers’ professional development seriously. It brings us the voices of beginning teachers as they deepen their professional knowledge over time and makes clear the depth of commitment they bring to the job. Professor Gemma Moss, Institute of Education, University of London

This book provides educators and facilitators with a comprehensive overview of the historical underpinnings and philosophical orientations of adult education and adult learning while attending to the various roles individuals play both within and beyond the formal constraints of the classroom. Positioning learners' and instructors' educational narratives as central to the theories that inform adult education, Pathways of Adult Learning opens up a dialogue among students, educators, community members, scholars, and working professionals about the many possible avenues toward knowledge sharing. Employing a personal, accessible tone, Janet Groen and Colleen Kawalilak take up a relational approach that encourages readers to reflect upon their own experiences as learners within the broadening context of adult education. Conscious of the power imbalances that can emerge in both institutional and professional work and learning environments, this text explores specific teaching and facilitation strategies that effectively generate ideas and accommodate adult learners of varying gender orientations, socio-economic backgrounds, and ethnicities. Through their collaborative analysis of a diverse collection of first-person narratives, provided by both students and scholars working in the field, the authors construct a multi-faceted portrait of the status of adult learning today. Integrating a critical lens to explore how social, cultural, and economic factors influence and shape individual and collective pathways toward lifelong learning, this text is an indispensible guide for anyone studying or facilitating educational programming for adults in diverse work and learning contexts.