What Is Urban About Urban Education?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: Faculty Issues in Urban Settings: Commitment, Retention, and Institutional Changes

Abstract

This study explores teacher educators’ conceptions of urban education while participating in an institutional change effort to become an urban College of Education. Data was drawn from historical background knowledge, on site observations, document reviews, and interviews with teacher educators engaged in the process to answer the following questions: 1) What tensions influence a College of Education going through the process of institutional change with the goal of becoming an urban focused organization within an urban institution? 2) What meanings does the term “urban” have in these programs? The findings suggest that teacher educators expressing a commitment to urban education should spend time analyzing their understandings of urban education and deliberating on the concept that will guide their practice.

Author

• Lara Willox, The University of West Georgia