Perspectives on Responsibility in Teacher Education: What's Worth Fighting for?

Recent documents released by the U.S. Department of Education offer a negative characterization of Teacher Education. In a recent edition of "AACTE Briefs," Sharon Robinson (2005) points out the obvious: "teacher education has been the focus of high-profile and high-impact interest of policy makers for many years" (p. 2). Policy makers have cast blame on teacher education for what they have seen as a sorry state of affairs in student achievement--for, in effect, leaving many children behind. With student achievement hanging in the balance, critics cast a variety of forms of blame on teacher education. In this article, the author explores four areas of the most recent spate of critiques: (1) the perception of unreasonable barriers to teacher certification; (2) lack of emphasis on areas of qualification that matter most; (3) lack of consistent program approval standards; and (4) concern about the meaningfulness of clinical/student teaching experiences. The author also discusses three broad areas that she believes are "worth fighting for" in teacher education, and how teacher educators should do it. A major, long-articulated goal of teacher education and the education field at large is the "professionalization" of teaching. Fighting for the professionalization of teaching involves addressing the areas of the teacher education knowledge base, participation in the policy process, and building and sustaining teacher education learning communities.