Rethinking Teacher Education's Responsibility to Prepare "Good" Teachers Based on Soka Approaches to Education

• In Event: Equity, Justice, and Institutional Practice

Abstract

This study reconsiders teacher education from Soka approaches that derive a more comprehensive explanation of “good teacher” compared to the current neoliberal conception of a “highly qualified teacher.” It is a qualitative single-site instrumental case study exploring Soka University of America’s faculty’s perspective through the framework of Schwab’s four curriculum commonplaces. The study suggests that it is important for teachers to critically reflect on their attitude toward their students and indicates the importance of the relational aspect of education, both of which are often underemphasized in pre- and in-service teacher assessments. We should also reconsider the current overemphasis on efficiently transmitting knowledge and adopt methods to guide students to apply their learning in personally and socially meaningful ways.

Author

• Nozomi Inukai, DePaul University