Private Interests in a Public Profession: Teacher Education and Racial Capitalism

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
The United States ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Racial Capitalism ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
Simple Character ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Policy Shifts ◽  
Background Context

Background/Context This article offers an analysis of the contemporary policy context surrounding teacher education in the United States. It lays out recent policy shifts that have come to frame the field, particularly university-based teacher preparation as “broken,” and to fuel forward certain strands of disruptive innovation. Purpose/Objective The article's aim is to prompt consideration of how teacher educators are navigating and might navigate, on their own and together, the tentacles of neoliberalism climbing from K–12 into teacher education. Specifically, it explores the outsize influence of pro-privatization entities and teacher educators who have partnered with them, and it raises questions about the compromised positions that the enduring structures of racial capitalism and the neo-liberal turn in education policy seemingly extend to teacher educators in these times. Conclusions/Recommendations The article closes by arguing that even well-meaning teacher educators can end up ensnared in destructive reform, and for reasons far more complicated than simple character flaw, carelessness, or collusion. Thus, while teacher education needs “transformers,” it needs for them to be conscious, careful, and accountable when it comes to the structures of racial capitalism and the (neoliberal) web into which present-day privatizing interests would like to see them profitably woven.

scholarly journals Talking About Sustainability in Teacher Preparation in Finland and the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-87
Author(s):  
Susan Wiksten
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Us ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Specific Culture ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Scientific Phenomena

This article reports on empirical research findings from a case study of teacher education in Finland and the United States. A sociological perspective was deployed for investigating how the concept of sustainability was addressed in two teacher education programs. One of the programs was located in Finland and the other in the US. The study was carried out in 2015 and 2016. Seventeen semi-structured, open-ended, audio-recorded interviews form the core of the research materials. A thematic analysis of interviews was conducted for identifying articulations related to sustainability in subject-matter specialized teacher preparation. Findings from this study contribute to research on teacher preparation. Notably, by articulating how context-specific culture and social norms contribute to local models of teacher education. Findings from this study indicate that teacher training practices in Finland have encouraged students to articulate sustainability in relation to critical thinking, whereas in the US, sustainability has been articulated in relation to social justice. The key point supported by the evidence is that sustainability was by teachers and teacher educators conceptualized as being about the popularization of knowledge about ecology and biodiversity. The kind of communication that was by teachers and teacher educators described as effective for popularizing knowledge about scientific phenomena were forms of teaching that expanded on content-specific knowledge by connecting it to ethical and civic frameworks of the societies in which students live.

Literacy in K-12 Teacher Education

2011 ◽  
pp. 469-492
Author(s):  
Kristina Love
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
New Literacy ◽  
Cd Rom ◽  
Text Structures ◽  
Critical Areas ◽  
Complex Forms ◽  
K 12

Midway through the first decade of the new millennium, teachers are still facing considerable challenges in dealing with the complex forms of literacy that are increasingly required for success across the K-12 curriculum in Australia. Three critical areas in particular need to be addressed in teacher education in this regard: teachers’ knowledge about text structures and about how language functions as a resource in the construction of a range of spoken, written, and multi-modal genres; teachers’ understanding of language and text as critical socio-cultural practices and how these practices build disciplinary knowledge across the K-12 curriculum; and teachers’ capacity to choose models of pedagogy that allow learners to master new literacy practices, transform meanings across contexts, and reflect substantively on learning through language. In this chapter, I will outline how a video-based interactive CD-ROM entitled BUILT (Building Understandings in Literacy and Teaching) was developed for use in teacher education to address these concerns. I will conclude by signalling some of the challenges that remain for teacher educators training novice teachers to scaffold, through ICT, their K-12 students into an important range of literacies.

When Asked, Teachers Said…

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
United States ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
The United States ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Racial Hierarchies ◽  
The U.S

The authors perceive that institutionalized racial hierarchies are the greatest barrier to educational equity in the United States. While P-12 teachers may express the desire to make their classrooms spaces of joy, creativity, and intellectual brilliance, it is primarily through intentional skills development that teachers succeed. The authors assert the need for greater investments by school districts and teacher education programs in professional development for in-service P-12 teachers that further empower them and, in turn, their students, to contribute to the dismantling of racism in the U.S. Teacher educators, administrators and policy makers need to position themselves as cultivators and supporters of P-12 teachers in ways that encourage and sustain their antiracist advocacy and equity work in their teaching.

Exposing Color Blindness/Grounding Color Consciousness

2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 1195-1225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerri Ullucci ◽  
Dan Battey
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Color Blindness ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
Color Blind ◽  
K 12

As teacher educators we have been struck by the consistency, urgency, and frequency in which students employ color-blind perspectives. This orientation has negative consequences in K-12 settings. In this manuscript, we lay out the multiple meanings of color blindness, drawing from legal, educational, and social science traditions, and offer arguments for color consciousness in education. In addition, we use this theoretical perspective to investigate interventions for countering color blindness in teacher education. Using a framework steeped in the tenets of color consciousness, we draw from scholars as well as our own work to provide interventions designed to challenge color-blind orientations in teachers.

scholarly journals Addressing the Teaching of English Language Learners in the United States: A case study of teacher educators’ response

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi L. Hallman ◽  
Hannah R. Meineke
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Prospective Teachers ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Nationwide Survey ◽  
The United States ◽  
Core Content

This article discusses teacher educators’ response to the issue of preparing prospective teachers in core content areas to be teachers of English language learners. In the case study we present in the article, the views of English language arts teacher educators, as analyzed from a nationwide survey of the teaching of English, are articulated. As a follow-up to the survey, focus groups were conducted with a sub-section of survey respondents. Findings indicate that, although the teaching of ELLs is viewed as a priority for teacher education, the field has yet to determine how to adequately address program coherence and partnership approaches to teaching ELLs within pre-service teacher education.  

scholarly journals Teacher Education: An Adaptive Response to the Movement to Online Instruction

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-34
Author(s):  
Robert Ceglie
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Online Instruction ◽  
The United States ◽  
Teacher Education Programs ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
Teacher Training Programs ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
Current Student ◽  
K 12

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted teacher training programs, as the shift to online instruction sent waves through the K-12 public education system in the United States. Teacher education programs were found in situations where their current student teachers needed significant additional support to navigate the rapid changes in the means that instruction was provided in their schools. This essay provides some insight on how one university navigated this process and provides suggestions for training future teachers. Covid-19, online instruction, pre-service teachers, teacher education

Flipping the Classroom in a Teacher Education Course

2014 ◽  
pp. 145-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Dickenson
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Flipped Classroom ◽  
The United States ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
Traditional Course ◽  
Class Time ◽  
University Preparation ◽  
K 12

Teacher education preparation programs prepare pre-service teachers for K-12 classrooms. In order to best prepare pre-service teachers, higher education institutions must be cognizant of the changes that are occurring in today’s K-12 classes. The flipped model is an approach to instruction where direct instruction and lecture is viewed at home and class time is used for collaboration and project-based learning. This approach to instruction is becoming increasingly popular in primary and secondary education classrooms throughout the United States. It is important to examine how a flipped classroom approach may influence pre-service teachers in a university preparation program. This chapter explores a case study that examined the flipped classroom in a teacher education course compared to a traditional course.

Beyond Damage-Centered Teacher Education: Humanizing Pedagogy for Teacher Educators and Preservice Teachers

2019 ◽  
Vol 121 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Dorinda J. Carter Andrews ◽  
Tashal Brown ◽  
Bernadette M. Castillo ◽  
Davena Jackson ◽  
Vivek Vellanki
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Critical Consciousness ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Preparation Programs ◽  
Preparation Programs ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Humanizing Pedagogy

Background/Context In our best efforts to increase preservice teachers’ critical consciousness regarding the historical and contemporary inequities in the P–12 educational system and equip them to embody pedagogies and practices that counter those inequities, teacher educators often provide curricular and field experiences that reinforce the deficit mindsets that students bring to the teacher education classroom. For many social justice-oriented teacher educators, our best intentions to create humanizing experiences for future teachers can have harmful results that negatively impact preservice teachers’ ability to successfully teach culturally diverse students in a multitude of learning contexts. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study In this article, we propose a humanizing pedagogy for teacher education that is informed by our experiences as K–12 teachers and teacher educators in a university-based teacher preparation program. We focus on the general questions, How can university-based teacher preparation programs embody and enact a humanizing pedagogy? and What role can curriculum play in advancing a humanizing pedagogy in university-based teacher preparation programs? Research Design In this conceptual article, we theorize a humanizing pedagogy for teacher education and propose a process of becoming asset-, equity-, and social justice-oriented teachers. This humanizing pedagogy represents a strengths-based approach to teaching and learning in the teacher preparation classroom. Conclusions/Recommendations We propose core tenets of a humanizing pedagogy for teacher education that represent an individual and collective effort toward critical consciousness for preservice teachers and also for teacher educators. If university-based teacher education programs are committed to cultivating the development of asset-, equity-, and social justice-oriented preservice teachers, the commitments to critical self-reflection, resisting binaries, and enacting ontological and epistemological plurality need to be foundational to program structure, curricula alignment, and instructional practice.

Popular music in preservice music education: Preparedness, confidence and implementation

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Hamilton ◽  
Jennifer Vannatta-Hall
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Training Programmes ◽  
K 12

This study examined popular music in preservice music teacher training programmes in the United States. The researchers explored types of courses and programmes offered in undergraduate music education programmes to prepare future music teachers to teach popular music. Quantitative data revealed trends in the inclusion of popular music within undergraduate music education programmes, determined music teacher educators’ perceptions of their students’ attitudes towards using popular music in the general music classroom, and examined the types of popular music pedagogy needed for preservice music educators. Qualitative data ascertained perceived confidence levels of graduates to utilize popular music. Results revealed that western classical music is the focus for the majority of music educators’ undergraduate degree programmes and that often music teacher preparation programmes ignore popular music study. Bridging the gap between western classical and popular music would help prepare teachers to include and value all types of music in K-12 music education.

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