Teacher Education for What Comes Next

• In Event: Between Constraints and Possibilities: Narratives of Agency and Hope in Surveilled Educational Spaces

Abstract

Mirroring the endemic experiences of practicing teachers, teacher preparation programs encounter systemic constraints through accountability (Cochran-Smith, 2021), accreditation (Zeichner et al, 2024), and external forces (Reagan & Goodwin, 2025). As teachers face a serious lack of autonomy and debates over professionalism, questions about what teachers actually need from their preparation programs surface. Why is lesson planning a worthwhile skill if scripted curriculum mandates teaching? What is the point of exploring the role of play in learning if recess and play are obsolete? Reagan and Goodwin (2025) argue for "redistributing power" to teachers through shared decision-making and centering teacher knowledge in policy decisions. The concept of “redistributing” implies that teachers have lost power that can be returned. In these times of constraint, where do teachers access power and what is the role of teacher education to support that discovery? What kind of teacher preparation recovers teaching as a profession centered on freedom rather than constraint (Greene, 2000)?
After decades of stripped authority, teachers and future teachers struggle to envision what freedom in schools and classrooms might mean. Most students enrolled in contemporary teacher preparation experienced schools dominated by testing and narrowed curriculum of the past twenty years. This research is rooted in practitioner inquiry (Cochran-Smith & Lytle) and the articulation of teacher power and agency accessed through inquiry into the practice of teaching. Drawing from my own practice as a teacher educator, the analysis focuses on an assignment in a foundations of education course. Undergraduate students were guided through an inquiry project about a topic of their choosing. Since 2023, more than 50% of students have focused on questions of teacher creativity and choice, reflecting awareness of agency and autonomy as inherent to effective teaching. The project design retains some of the pernicious power dynamics of traditional schooling such as grades and deadlines, but also allows for future teachers to spend the semester thinking about critical questions, collecting data from observations in school and other sources, and formulating next steps for their teaching, research and advocacy based on their findings. This paper looks across those projects to explore the connections between the questions that future teachers ask, the role of the imagination in the process of developing recommendations and the work of releasing constraints and practicing advocacy. Future teachers decide future learning and actionable next steps—powerful levers for change amidst significant uniformity and conformity.
Maxine Green (2000) argued that “imagination is the capacity to think of things as if they could be otherwise” (p. 19). Supporting future teachers to focus less on perceived constraints and more on their capacity for reflective decision-making empowers them to influence curriculum and transform practice.

Author

• Anne Burns Thomas, SUNY - College at Cortland