The reform in teacher education. A partial process and its results

A ring of optimism was heard in the title of a position paper by Chen and Gotlieb when it came out in the late 1980s - 'Towards a new era in teaching education in Israel'. However, as the 1990s unfolded, it was apparent that this hope was not to be fulfilled. Since the early 1980s, teacher education reform fastened on a single issue, namely, the academization of non-university teacher training institutions. Although this process is now almost complete in the secular and religious sectors, certain intrinsic part of the reform have failed to pan out. In addition, the 1990s witnessed the development of a large system of ultra-orthodox, non-academic teacher education programs, which now caters for some 30% of all studen teachers in Israel. The teacher training institutions is challenged by the difficulty of attracting qualified faculty (only 28% have a doctoral degree) and able students. The teaching profession needs well-qualified people, but provides unappealing working conditions, and low material and symbolic benefits. Moreover, various restrictions on teacher training colleges keep their status low, making it imposible to attract quality candidates. From the data summarized and presented in this paper we learn that the teacher training system ranks lowest in the higher education system in Israel in terms of student profile quality. This information should alert us to the possibility of a further decline in the profession due to an absence of strong and courageous policy.