Title: Excellence in Schools of Education: An Oxymoron?
Abstract: The demands made on schools, colleges, and departments of are indeed enormous. But by concentrating on the three key areas that Ms. Brabeck and Mr. Shirley discuss, university-based teacher programs will be able to achieve the that may have eluded them up to now. THERE IS tremendous variability in the quality of our schools, colleges, and departments of (SCDEs). The previous educational achievements of teacher candidates, the rigor of the programs, the accomplishments of the faculty both in scholarship and teaching, and the reward structures all vary widely. Here, we explore what an excellent school of should look like and provide some insights into why more schools, colleges, and departments of are not excellent. Examining the characteristics of SCDEs provides a window into the complexities and contradictions of being part of a university, particularly a research university. SCDEs that are located within research universities aspire to do it all. Like chemistry and biology departments, these SCDEs conduct a great deal of externally funded research that is published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals. Like other professional schools, they develop high-quality undergraduate and master's-level programs that prepare skilled professionals and place them in real-world settings. Like medical colleges and law schools, SCDEs demonstrate that their programs meet standards established by accrediting bodies and state agencies. Like our colleagues in the arts and sciences, teacher faculty members provide apprenticeship for the next generation of professors in our disciplines. In addition, faculty members in SCDEs today must do three things that other university faculty members are not required to do. First, we must form partnerships with schools and communities (especially schools that are struggling with students who live in poverty) to improve teaching and student learning. Second, SCDEs are asked to conduct research on their students after graduation to demonstrate that they and their teacher programs make a difference in the lives and learning of the students with whom these graduates work. Third, SCDE faculty members must collaborate with one another and with professors in the arts and sciences to forge links between deep content knowledge, understanding of student development and learning, and pedagogy. All of this is done in the face of having to carry the heaviest teaching loads in the university and often having to work with some of the least able students.1 In addition, many states prescribe curricula for SCDEs at the same time that they reward prospective teachers who avoid SCDEs and enter teaching through fast-track alternative programs. For example, the Massachusetts Institute for New Teachers (MINT) currently pays beginning teachers a bonus of $20,000; the recipients of the funding circumvent college- and university-based teacher preparation programs altogether and enter classrooms after a seven-week summer institute. Arranging professional development school partnerships, improving low- performing schools, proving the value added by programs, and convincing arts and sciences faculty members to share a commitment to the preparation of teachers are Sisyphean tasks. We offer some thoughts on why most SCDEs fail to achieve in all these endeavors, along with suggestions about what needs to change if we want excellence in our schools of education to be more than an oxymoron. Premise 1. We must be far more radical about building strong partnerships with schools and communities if we wish to achieve in our SCDEs. Since John Dewey's laboratory school was created in Chicago in 1896, educators have known that working side by side with teachers, principals, and other professionals enables aspiring teachers to make connections between theory and practice. …
Publication Year: 2003
Publication Date: 2003-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 10
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