Transforming Teacher Education: What Went Wrong with Teacher Training, and How We Can Fix It

by Valerie Hill-Jackson (Editor), Chance W. Lewis (Editor), Peter McLaren (Foreword by)

Overview

Extracts from the text:"Why are fifteen million children and youth in poverty not achieving when we know that low-income students excel in the classrooms of “star” teachers (who comprise approximately 8 percent of the teaching force)?" "Whose needs or interests are being met in education reform today?" “In my own institution, there has not been a systematic assessment of the effectiveness of the basic teacher education program since the institution was founded over a century ago as a teachers college. Imagine, not one ever!”"Teachers who empathize with students and the life challenges they face soon realize that the dysfunctional bureaucracies will not permit them to meet the needs of their students. Half of the starry-eyed beginners are gone in five years or less." "Why does teacher education focus on the managerial, instrumental or delivery system aspects of the profession?"The expert advice dispensed by schools of education regarding what future teachers should do is not connected to any theory of learning, or to any reality of life in school classrooms." "Why has the recruitment process resulted in a cohort of teachers who are unable to connect with their students?"Does a qualified teacher equate to a quality teacher?"The best hope of getting more effective teachers from university teacher preparation programs is to base their budgets on the number of their graduates who serve in challenging schools and their effectiveness with children and youth. At the district level, the salaries of hiring officials should be based on how well these officials identify and retain quality teachers."In this book, 12 distinguished scholars provide a hard-hitting, thoroughly researched, historical and theoretical critique of our schools of education, and offer clear recommendations on what must be done to ensure all children can achieve their potential, and contribute to a vibrant, democratic society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781579225520
Publisher:	Stylus Publishing
Publication date:	03/12/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Valerie Hill-Jackson is a Clinical Associate Professor at Texas A&M University in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture where she serves as a teacher educator. Her research interests include community and adult education. Dr. Hill-Jackson is a 2001-2002 AERA / Spencer fellow and received the national LEAD (poisoning) STAR award for her research in childhood lead poisoning in urban environments with African American mothers. She is also a Geraldine R. Dodge fellow for outstanding teaching and received the 2007 People Magazine / Maybelline, “Women Who Empower Through Education” award.

Chance W. Lewis is the Houston Endowment Inc., Endowed Chair and Associate Professor of Urban Education and the Co-Director of the urban education graduate program in the College of Education at Texas A&M University. Additionally, Dr. Lewis is the Co-Director of the Center for Urban School Partnerships at Texas A&M University. Dr. Lewis also serves as the Deputy Director for the Center of African American Research and Policy (CAARP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During his career, Dr. Lewis has over 100 publications include over 50 refereed journal articles in some of the leading academic journals in the field of urban education and teacher education. Additionally, he has received over $4 million in external research funds to support his research. To date, Dr. Lewis has author/co-authored/co-edited 4 books: White Teachers/Diverse Classrooms: A Guide for Building Inclusive Schools, Eliminating Racism and Promoting High Expectations (Stylus, 2006), The Dilemmas of Being an African American Male in the New Millennium: Solutions for Life Transformation; An Educator’s Guide to Working with African American Students: Strategies for Promoting Academic Success (Infinity, 2008); and Transforming Teacher Education: What Went Wrong with Teacher Training and How We Can Fix It (Stylus, 2010). Finally, Dr. Lewis has provided consultative services (i.e., professional development and research services) to over 100 school districts and universities across the United States and Canada. Dr. Lewis can be reached by e-mail at [e-mail] or via his website at http://www.chancewlewis.com

Peter McLaren is
Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies at Attallah College of Educational
Studies, Chapman University and Chair Professor, Northeast Normal University,
China. A political activist and award-winning author, he has published 50 books in the areas of political sociology of education, critical pedagogy and liberation theology.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD—Peter McLaren
PROLOGUE—Valerie Hill-Jackson & Chance W. Lewis, Texas A&M University
PART I: HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY IN TEACHER EDUCATION
1) (Re)enVISIONing Teacher Education: A Critical Exploration of Missed Historical Moments and Promising Possibilities—Jennifer Milam, University of Akron
2) Liberal Progressivism at the Crossroads: Towards a Critical Philosophy of Teacher Education—Nathalia Jaramillo, Purdue University
PART II: IMPLEMENTING VALUE-ADDED TEACHER TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
3) Dispositions Matter! Advancing Habits of the Mind for Social Justice—Valerie Hill-Jackson & Chance W. Lewis, Texas A&M University
4) Teacher Candidate Selection, Recruitment, and Induction: A Critical Analysis with Implications for Transformation—F. Blake Tenore, Alfred C. Dunn, Judson C. Laughter, and H. Richard Milner, Vanderbilt University
PART III: ACCOUNTABILITY & EVALUATION
5) A Modest Proposal for Making Teacher Education Accountable—Martin Haberman, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
6) High Stakes Accountability and Teacher Quality: Coping with Contradictions—Jennifer Rice, University of Maryland
7) Meeting the Challenge of High-Stakes Testing: Toward a Culturally-Relevant Assessment Literacy—Kris Sloan, St. Edwards University
PART IV: TRANSFORMING TEACHER EDUCATION
8) When Policies Meet Practice: Leaving No Teacher Behind—Jeanita Richardson, University of Virginia –Arlington & Virginia State University
9) Constructing 21st Century Teacher Education—Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University
EPILOGUE
This is Our Moment: Contemplating the Urgency of Now for the Future of Teacher Education—Chance W. Lewis & Valerie Hill-Jackson, Texas A&M University

Editorial Reviews

"Just as teacher educators strive to develop reflectiveness in pre-service teachers, this book asks teacher education programs to be honest in examining and understanding their strengths, weaknesses, constraints, and potential so that they may move forward. [This book] provides a thorough and complex consideration of possibilities for reinventing teacher education. Diverse, research based chapters approach transformation in teacher education from a vast range of perspectives and ask the reader to analyze and question how to transform teacher education. What with issues of teacher preparation and quality on the forefront of public discourse, there is need for the teacher education community to reflect on their practices in order to begin a challenging and necessary action-based discussion about how to better prepare teachers. This volume does not provide a single vision or easy answer, but it is an essential step forward."

Education Review

This volume is the one of most comprehensive and deeply analytical works on teacher preparation to appear in decades. As a teacher educator, I deeply appreciate this thoughtful and critical examination of the issues, dilemmas, and trenchant problems of teaching and teacher education in America. This is a work well worth reading!

Peter C. Murrell

"Just as teacher educators strive to develop reflectiveness in pre-service teachers, this book asks teacher education programs to be honest in examining and understanding their strengths, weaknesses, constraints, and potential so that they may move forward. [This book] provides a thorough and complex consideration of possibilities for reinventing teacher education. Diverse, research based chapters approach transformation in teacher education from a vast range of perspectives and ask the reader to analyze and question how to transform teacher education. What with issues of teacher preparation and quality on the forefront of public discourse, there is need for the teacher education community to reflect on their practices in order to begin a challenging and necessary action-based discussion about how to better prepare teachers. This volume does not provide a single vision or easy answer, but it is an essential step forward."

Education Review

“Transforming Teacher Education is provocative, insightful, precise, and vital to our profession. Those whose lives intersect with teacher education will understand that this ‘must read’ text does more than merely encourage a transformative moment—it insists that a critical transformation is essential for the very survival of teacher education. The editors have masterfully assembled the writings of preeminent scholars to crucially examine the profession while constructing a focused vision for the future of teacher education.”

David Whaley, Associate Dean and Director of Teacher Education, College of Human Sciences

Iowa State University

“This volume is the one of most comprehensive and deeply analytical works on teacher preparation to appear in decades. As a teacher educator, I deeply appreciate this thoughtful and critical examination of the issues, dilemmas, and trenchant problems of teaching and teacher education in America. This is a work well worth reading!”

Peter C. Murrell, Jr., Founding Dean, School of Education, and Professor of Educational Psychology

Loyola University Maryland

“We need the best research, theories, and practices to make the kind of changes needed in the field of teacher education. This volume helps us take a major step in this direction. Breaking down the barriers to inter-district integration and reducing residential segregation, strengthening social justice education through critical pedagogy, developing teacher accountability policies and ways that will make teacher education programs more accountable, improving teacher candidate recruitment and induction, working through the contradictions of high stakes accountability and teacher quality —all tasks designed to improve the skills of teachers and policy-makers and improve the lives of students—are just some of the topics covered in this volume. Teachers, prospective teachers, educational planners, and policy-makers will all benefit from engaging this book. Hopefully they will engage the chapters with open minds, and begin to challenge ‘business as usual’ approaches to teacher education.”

Peter McLaren

University of California, Los Angeles

From the Publisher

Transforming Teacher Education is provocative, insightful, precise, and vital to our profession. Those whose lives intersect with teacher education will understand that this ‘must read’ text does more than merely encourage a transformative moment—it insists that a critical transformation is essential for the very survival of teacher education. The editors have masterfully assembled the writings of preeminent scholars to crucially examine the profession while constructing a focused vision for the future of teacher education.

David Whaley

We need the best research, theories, and practices to make the kind of changes needed in the field of teacher education. This volume helps us take a major step in this direction. Breaking down the barriers to inter-district integration and reducing residential segregation, strengthening social justice education through critical pedagogy, developing teacher accountability policies and ways that will make teacher education programs more accountable, improving teacher candidate recruitment and induction, working through the contradictions of high stakes accountability and teacher quality —all tasks designed to improve the skills of teachers and policy-makers and improve the lives of students—are just some of the topics covered in this volume. Teachers, prospective teachers, educational planners, and policy-makers will all benefit from engaging this book. Hopefully they will engage the chapters with open minds, and begin to challenge ‘business as usual’ approaches to teacher education.

Peter McLaren

We need the best research, theories, and practices to make the kind of changes needed in the field of teacher education. This volume helps us take a major step in this direction. Breaking down the barriers to inter-district integration and reducing residential segregation, strengthening social justice education through critical pedagogy, developing teacher accountability policies and ways that will make teacher education programs more accountable, improving teacher candidate recruitment and induction, working through the contradictions of high stakes accountability and teacher quality —all tasks designed to improve the skills of teachers and policy-makers and improve the lives of students—are just some of the topics covered in this volume. Teachers, prospective teachers, educational planners, and policy-makers will all benefit from engaging this book. Hopefully they will engage the chapters with open minds, and begin to challenge ‘business as usual’ approaches to teacher education.

Peter McLaren University of California