The Struggle For The Soul Of Teacher Education

The Struggle for the Soul of Teacher Education is a much-needed exploration of the unprecedented current controversies and debates over teacher education and professionalism. Set within the context of neo-liberal education reforms across the globe, the book explores how the current struggles over teaching and teacher education in the US came about, as well as reflections on where we should head in the future. Zeichner provides specific examples of work that moves teacher education toward greater congruency between ideals and practices, while outlining the basis for a new form of community-based teacher education, where universities and other program providers, local communities, school districts, and teacher unions share responsibility for the preparation of teachers. Ultimately, Zeichner problematizes an uncritical shift to more practice and clinical experience, and discusses the enduring problems of clinical teacher education that need to be addressed for this shift to be educative. Readers are sure to gain insight on transforming teacher education so it more adequately addresses the need to prepare teachers capable of providing a high-quality education with access to a rich and broad curriculum, and culturally and community responsive teaching for everyone’s children.

Reform of teacher education is en vogue worldwide today due to the widespread belief that teacher education has the power to change traditional modes of schooling, educating new teachers who will be capable of improving the knowledge standard of children and boost the economic power of nations. The Struggle for Teacher Education brings together conceptual, comparative and empirical studies from Australia, England, Finland, The Netherlands, Norway, South Africa and South America to explore the ways in which professional education has been positioned in a reactive mode. The contributors discuss how teacher education is a contested division in higher education and look at how current reform efforts may limit the potential and work of teacher education, highlighting why this point needs more attention. Moreover, the collection reveals how teacher education's authorship on teacher professionalism may be weakened or strengthened by current reform drives and offers alternative models on how to rethink reforming teacher education.

This collaborative volume offers an in-depth portrait and valuable reference for the development of clinical or school-embedded partnerships in teacher preparation by drawing on the decades-long partnership between a university and set of schools in an urban neighborhood. In the midst of a national movement towards partnership-based clinical teacher education, this book explains and illustrates the roles, commitments, and collaborative practices that have evolved. Divided into three parts, contributors outline the theory and practice of the clinical teacher preparation model and its neighborhood focus, covering topics such as: The social and institutional context of partnership development and teacher education; Key collaborative and learning practices; Challenges and questions that have emerged, and what can be learned from the experience. Written with voices of university faculty, school educators, program graduates, and students from partner schools, Thomas Del Prete offers a volume perfect for those looking to be inspired by an example of clinical teacher education and partnership in an urban community and to learn what can be achieved with conviction and perseverance over time.

This text both challenges and traces the development of a culture of regulation, standardization, performativity, and governmentality evident in Anglophone teaching practice and education. Framed by a brief history of teacher education research and policy in North America over the last six decades, the text argues that the instrumentalization of curriculum and pedagogy has robbed teachers of their pedagogical soul, passion, and purpose. Using a conceptual model, Grimmett forges a pathway for teachers to adopt a soulful way forward in professional practice, individually and collectively enhancing autonomy over programs, and protecting the public trust placed in them as educators. This text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in teachers and teacher education, educational policy and politics, and curriculum thinking and enactment more broadly. Those specifically interested in pedagogy, educational change and reform, and the philosophy of education will also benefit from this book.

"This book moves beyond the purported dichotomy between university-based teacher education and alternatives such as Teach For America to consider their common challenges and suggest a starting place from which to imagine a future of more effective teacher preparation. In focusing on the experiences of the first Teach For America cohort between 1990-1992, the book anchors its analysis in a particular historical moment, allowing a significant accounting of a pivotal time in [teacher] education as well as thoughtful consideration of both change and continuity in how teachers have been prepared and entered the classroom over the decades since. Through its use of oral history testimonies, Schooling Teachers offers important stories about individuals' personal experiences and actions, but also reveals the broader collective and social forces that shaped and gave meaning to those experiences. Richly detailed qualitative data, in the form of oral history, enables the authors to draw from the specific narratives some general insights that speak to the larger issues of staffing and supporting urban schools"--

Organized by region, this edited collection provides a comprehensive look at how teacher education has evolved regionally and nationally in Canada. Offering an in-depth look at specific provinces and territories, this volume contextualizes the landscape of Canadian public education and the place of teacher education within it. Shedding light on the ways Canadian teacher education was shaped by and in turn influenced its environment, contributors evaluate the current state of education and consider themes, tensions, and historical developments, presenting a view of teacher education that encompasses both its future and its past. A significant contribution to the field of curriculum history, this book offers a benchmark for conversations about the purposes, means, and ends of teacher education in Canada.

This handbook presents a timeless, comprehensive, and up-to-date resource covering major issues in the field of teacher education research. In a global landscape where migration, inequality, climate change, political upheavals and strife continue to be broadly manifest, governments and scholars alike are increasingly considering what role education systems can play in achieving stability and managed, sustainable economic development. With growing awareness that the quality of education is very closely related to the quality of teachers and teaching, teacher education has moved into a key position in international debate and discussion. This volume brings together transnational perspectives to provide insight and evidence of current policy and practice in the field, covering issues such as teacher supply, preservice education, continuing professional learning, leadership development, professionalism and identity, comparative and policy studies, as well as gender, equity, and social justice.