Preparing Teachers for Educational Renewal Within Current Contexts of Accountability

Abstract

Given changes to the ways teachers and, by association, the universities that prepare them are held accountable, the critical work of John Goodlad in educational renewal through teacher education has restored at least some capacity to reframe conversations about ways to better prepare teachers to serve diverse students in America’s schools. In this article, we examine how Goodlad’s vision, reified through his Twenty Postulates (a) might have helped to reshape teacher education over the past three decades, (b) has been (or might be) affected by current accountability policies, and (c) might be extended or expanded for the next generation of teachers and students. We argue that research is needed within which researchers examine ways to reaffirm teacher education as a top priority, better prepare teachers to serve as stewards of schools, empower teachers as change agents, and create spaces for faculty to engage in research with their school district partners.

Tinker, Tailor, Supervisor, Spy: Lessons Learned from Distant Supervision

“…If distant supervision unfolds elsewhere as it unfolded in this study, the disconnect between the teacher preparation program and the classroom-what Darling-Hammond (2009) calls the "Achilles' heel of teacher education" (as cited in Zeichner, 2010, p. 91)-will continue in a more exacerbated form. As scholars call for more context-laden Professional Development Schools (PDS) (Rodgers & Keil, 2007;Silva & Dana, 2001) and the simultaneous renewal of schools and universities (Goodlad, 1994;Paufler & Amrein-Beardsley, 2016), we see our participants' concerns as stark reminders that neoliberal solutions to problems in education may not be panaceas, nor do they always center teacher learning as their primary concern.…”

Evaluating the Tennessee Higher Education Commission's Report Card on the value-added estimates of teacher preparation programs

“…Interestingly, the narrowing issue plays out somewhat uniquely for the evaluation of TPPs. How we define the outcomes of TPPs -including determining the value-added estimates of TPPs in training graduates in tested grades and subjects versus excluding TPPs' contribution in non-tested grades and subjects -both legitimizes and undermines certain perspectives about the purposes of education in a democratic society, the nature of teaching and learning, and the role of TPPs in education reform (Paufler & Amrein-Beardsley, 2016). …”

The Research We Need in Teacher Education

“…These and other equally important questions continue to challenge the field and demand thinking about guiding frameworks. Paufler and Amrein-Beardsley (2016), in this issue, argue along these lines and propose looking at work of scholars such as John Goodlad that provides a vision and moral compass for teacher education and can contribute insights concerning how to better prepare teachers to address the needs of diverse learners. Looking at past work as a way to frame a research agenda for the future, Mills and Ballantine (2016), in this issue, make an argument for socially just teacher education by contributing the findings of a systematic review of the research literature located at the intersection of social justice and teacher education in peer-review journals within the last 10 years.…”