Dangerous Conversations: Persistent Tensions in Teacher Education

There is a long history of teacher education negotiating the tension between intellectual rigor and meeting the needs of filing classrooms with teachers who will meet the demands of their employers. Up to the 1830s. teaching was mostly a profession of apprenticeships, much like medicine and law. But the creation of the Common School or publicly sponsored education, required large numbers of people to be teachers, and the apprenticeship model couldn't meet the demand. Leaders of the Common School movement became advocates of teacher education And the Normal School was born. Normal Schools provided access to advanced education ?that-many people wanted, and soon-the schools started offering more than teaching courses. Regional and state colleges crew out of this demand for more accessible higher education and they continued to prepare many teachers. Elite universities began to develop schools of education and perceived their function to be different-from nonresearch institutions. These research institutions produced theory and scholarship about-pedagogy educational access. differential outcomes, diversity equity democracy and more. The preparation of teachers within these institutions was viewed as cultivating intellectuals who would use theory and research in their work as educators. The-tensions persist Should schools o-F education Vain' people who will enact the latest poky mandates in schools without questioning the status quo? Or should they "educate" people who understand theories of teaching learning, childhood and growth so they can make pedagogical decisions that-inspire creativity and innovation in the next-generation" The answer is not-inconsequential. I conducted a three-year study of teacher education students' experiences in my classes in a research institution-one of those places sometimes accused of being disconnected from the Real Word What counts as the Real World however, is still under debate. It-was the Red World that provided the subject matter for my students' education. They studied the bed community from the perspective of a critical ethnographer. They analyzed the ways race, class, gender, and sexuality affect individuals' and groups' experiences with schooling. And they developed project-based plans to incorporate families and communities ft education to make learning more relevant and class-sensitive for working-class and poor children from diverse backgrounds. My students had spent many years in the Red World of test-based schooling and believed this had eclipsed the Red World for which their education had claimed to prepare them So which world is real? And how does our answer to that question reveal what we believe about children and youth? This is yet another tension that-often exist between research universities that prepare teachers and some schools where teachers may be employed. Agenda Morning greetings Classism in society and schools Making things Criticai literacies Paulo Freire bell hooks Body image issues Feminism n elementary schools I have exciting news, everyone! What? What? What is it? We have been invited to help design and implement-an after-school program at-a local elementary school. The school served mostly African-American and Latino children, most of whom qualified for free or reduced-price lunch. My students were thrilled and designed an after-school program-that also gave children some choice over how they would use their time. They kept in mind the power of making things aria designed a Construction Center with lots of recyclable materials and supplies to manipulate. Making maps was a popular activity too: 3-D and 2-D maps of classrooms, playgrounds, neighborhoods, homes, bus routes, or even maps of fictional places were dl exciting. …