The Political Landscape of Teacher Education in the United States

• In Event: Struggles for Control: International Perspectives on Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper analyzes three major “camps” that are currently struggling for the “soul” of teaching and teacher education in the U.S. The first group, the defenders, seeks to encourage investments in strengthening the current system of teacher preparation that is dominated by colleges and universities. Despite the emergence of “alternative” certification programs in the United States in the last 30 years, most teachers in the U.S. are still prepared by colleges and universities (National Research Council, 2010). A second group, the reformers, is attempting to disrupt the current system and replace it with market competition that includes a new set of “charter” teacher education programs run by non-university providers. The third group, the transformers, advocates changing the current system in significant ways, (e.g., changing who is responsible for programs), but wants to maintain its essential public nature. Each of these camps has advocated particular ways of defining the quality of teaching and teacher education.
The paper lays out the major arguments that have been set forth by each camp and assess the strengths and weaknesses of each position. In order to accomplish this, one of the major proposals of each camp will be used to illustrate the main assumptions and arguments of each position. For the defender camp, the call to move teacher education more to schools and to make specific teaching practices the center of teacher education will be used to illustrate the arguments of this position (NCATE, 2010). For the reformer camp, the push to deregulate teacher education and to promote the spread of non-university run charter programs will be used to illuminate the major assumptions and arguments of this position (Chubb, 2012; Knowles, 2013). Finally, for the transformation camp, proposals to move to a form of teacher education where responsibility for preparing teachers is shared more democratically by universities, schools, and local communities (Zeichner & Payne, 2013).
After analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments of each camp, the paper will discuss the role of the federal government and private philanthropy in relation to the 3 positions. The paper concludes with a discussion of the likely future of teacher education in the U.S. given these 3 reform camps and the role of policymakers and philanthropists.

References
Chubb, J. (2012). The best teachers in the world: Why we don’t have them and how we could. Palo Alto, CA: Hoover Institute Press.
Knowles, T. (2013). New pathways for teachers, new promises for students: A vision for developing excellent teachers. Washington, D.C: American Enterprise Institute, Special Report 3.
National Council of Accreditation for Teacher Education (2010). Transforming teacher education through clinical practice: A national strategy to prepare effective teachers. Washington, D.C: Author.
National Research Council (2010). Preparing teachers: Building evidence for sound policy. Washington, D.C: National Academies Press.
Zeichner, K. & Payne, K. (2013). Democratizing knowledge in urban teacher education. In J. Noel (Ed). Moving teacher education into urban schools and communities. (pp. 3-19). New York: Routledge.

Author

• Kenneth M Zeichner, University of Washington