Since teacher education looked to become a formal field of study in the 1800s, it has historically contended with competing forces in the effort to solidify its professional identity. Currently, that contention is juxtaposed with those external forces that look to promote fast-track teacher training, with its ultimate goal to dismantle traditional teacher education programs, and those internal forces, whereby teacher education within itself continues to struggle with its own identity, power, and influence. To that end, this book, A Turning Point in Teacher Education: A Time for Resistance, Reflection, and Change, suggests we have reached a climax point, a turning point in teacher education, meaning we must work to resist and denounce those external forces that are laboring to undermine the professionalization of what it means to be a teacher. Simultaneously, we must also deeply reflect and be clear about those internal forces at work when it comes to solidifying the place, power, and necessity of traditional teacher education programs, ultimately announcing the furthering of what should be.
Introduction: What is Happening with Teacher Education? PART I: ACTIVISM MATTERS Chapter 1: Turning Points PART II: THE HIJACKING OF THE EDUCATION NARRATIVE Chapter 2: Reform, Accountability, and Compromising K-12 Education Chapter 3: Neoliberalism: A Systematic Effort to Privatize Chapter 4: Working to Eliminate Traditional Teacher Education Programs PART III: TEACHER EDUCATION AND THE POLITICS WITHIN Chapter 5: A Rocky Historical Road Toward Teacher Education Chapter 6: Sameness versus Difference: Is Teacher Education Clear about Faculty Expectations? Chapter 7: Sameness versus Difference: Is Teacher Education Fair about Compensation and the Hiring Process? Chapter 8: The Macro versus Micro Challenge Chapter 9: Two-Stepping Among Colleges of Education, Accrediting Agencies, and State Departments of Education Chapter 10: Quantity versus Quality in Accepting Teacher Candidates PART IV: THE QUESTION OF WHAT AND HOW TO TEACH Chapter 11: The Relationship between Curriculum and Instruction Chapter 12: Models, Approaches, and Frameworks: What's the Difference? Chapter 13: How Should We Teach: Transmission, Transaction, or Transformation? CHAPTER 14: Should we Emphasize Universal Human Development or Diversity? Chapter 15: The Question of Online Delivery Systems in Teacher Education PART V: MOVING FORWARD Chapter 16: Realize the Distraction in Order to Move Forward Chapter 17: In Need of a "Flexner-like" Moment in Teacher Education References
