Teacher educators are supposed to ensure that their preservice candidates and practitioners are equipped with the content knowledge, pedagogical skills, and dispositions that will help to create effective classroom teachers who serve as models of civic engagement for their students. Civic engagement is understood as being the act of making a…

Personally, the authors have seen the evolution of teacher education for over 30 years. From "diagnostic/prescriptive teaching" through "reflective practice," the quality of the programs and students has improved greatly. Turning that subjective appraisal into a quantifiable evaluation is a tricky enterprise in education. However, the demand for…

Democratic education, the idea that all members of a school community play meaningful roles in determining what is learned and how, has occupied a stable if marginal place in American educational discourse over the last century. Despite a continued interest in democracy as both a means and ends of schooling, schools of education have struggled to…

The author's introductory course, "Nature and Needs of the Gifted," was unusual in the Fall semester this year because for the first time in a long time, most of her students had no background at all in gifted education. Teachers in her class were highly motivated and wanted to learn. They seemed to care about meeting the needs of the gifted, but…

The author takes up the invitation to engage in the dialogue on the imperatives for civic engagement in teacher education at the intersections of youth, immigration, and globalization in urban contexts--especially when given that many of the youth in K-12 schools are immigrants or children of immigrants. The first imperative considers the…

I have been an English teacher for 38 (gulp!) years. For over 20 of those I have taught "English methods" courses in initial teacher education programs. As the retirement light glows increasingly brighter at the end of my career pathway, I reflect on three aspects of teaching English that have been--and remain--the cornerstones of my…

This article argues for the importance of broad and on-going research to support initial or pre-service teacher education program admissions. Examples from a large initial teacher education program at one Canadian university illustrate the contributions of research to the evaluation and refinement of admission processes. These examples include…

Teacher education programs in Russia need to be redesigned to be suitable for the changes that have occurred in Russian society, and also to equip teachers to help students connect with their local cultures and ethnicities.

The authors use critical race theory (CRT) and critical race feminism (CRF) as a lens for analyzing and grappling with White students' resistance to learning about and deconstructing systems of oppression. The authors build on the work of critical scholars whose work exposes the ways in which White pre-service teachers resist counter-hegemonic…

In this wide-ranging interview with Educational Leadership, Stanford University Professor of Education Linda Darling-Hammond discusses the kind of preparation and support new teachers need to survive their critical first years in the classroom. Among her central recommendations are more intensive mentoring that lasts through the first year of…

Based on his reading, research, and experiences as both a classroom teacher and teacher educator, the author accepts Dewey's ultimate recognition that the problem is not simply that teachers are unaware of alternatives to schooling as usual, and that better teacher education is the solution to making schools the sites of more active learning. The…

Set in the context of a teacher education program, this study examined how three White pre-service teachers participate in book club discussions of children's literature. We asked: When White pre-service teachers are in a context that enables talk about race, racism and anti-racism, what do they talk about? What conceptual and discursive tools do…

Thanks to China's reform and opening to the world over the last three decades, the conventional normal education system, which is characterized by independent orientation, is now being challenged by a comprehensive and multi-faceted modern teacher education system that has taken shape. It is high time that we attached great significance to the…

This column brings to the attention of "RT" readers the hot topic of redesigning teacher education programs. Featured are interviews with professionals involved in a statewide redesign initiative in Tennessee, the Ready2Teach (R2T) program. The interviews highlight major changes in how teacher education programs are being transformed to…

Students, teachers, administrators, community members, and policymakers are collectively responsible for ensuring that the literacy learning required to earn a living and lead a well-rounded life is available to all. To meet that responsibility, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) urges legislators to practice civil discourse by…