Teacher education faces challenges that are immediate and demanding. Adapting teacher education to the changing needs of educational systems is an imperative. This book offers engaging, thoughtful, and sometimes provocative ways of engaging in the debate around what is and can be in teacher education. This book responds to such things as the economic limitations associated with “fast track” routes to teacher certification, while also considering challenges such as the introduction of technology, teaching core instructional practices, as well as the place and nature of teacher education in preparing teachers for an ever-changing world.

Misinformation and propaganda abound about the quality of teacher preparation in the United States. The Teachers We Need vs. the Teachers We Have reveals exactly how American teachers are taught, describes the wide disparities in the preparation of teachers across states, depicts how market-driven teacher preparation waters down the quality of teachers, and explains how teacher preparation in America compares with preparation for other careers in the United States and with teacher preparation programs in other countries.

This book offers engaging, thoughtful, and sometimes provocative ways of engaging in the debate around what is and can be in teacher education.

COVID-19 is ravaging our planet. Our teachers are challenged and possibly left behind on a computer to teach or maybe required to go into an unsafe classroom. Some of our teachers are battling mental illness, social isolation, and an overall lack of physical wellness. “Now is the time to act on behalf of America’s teachers!” Dr. Murray’s desire is that this book will awaken the consciousness of every American citizen about the psychological, emotional, and financial well-being of our teachers. It is a personal outcry for help from every American. If we do not change the way we perceive, respect, and value our teachers in America, they will be Left Behind. The once honorable teaching profession, so important in its human facility, will fade away to baseless technology and advanced software systems. Dr. Murray is convinced that there will NEVER be a computer program that can mimic the warm voice along with inspirational and encouraging words that students need to hear throughout their academic journey that only can come from a TEACHER.

Seven key principles from Finland for building a culture of trust in schools around the world. In the spring of 2018, thousands of teachers across the United States—in states like Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Arizona—walked off their jobs while calling for higher wages and better working conditions. Ultimately, these American educators trumpeted a simple request: treat us like professionals. Teachers in many other countries feel the same way as their US counterparts. In Teachers We Trust presents a compelling vision, offering practical ideas for educators and school leaders wishing to develop teacher-powered education systems. It reveals why teachers in Finland hold high status, and shows what the country’s trust- based school system looks like in action. Pasi Sahlberg and Timothy D. Walker suggest seven key principles for building a culture of trust in schools, from offering clinical training for future teachers to encouraging student agency to fostering a collaborative professionalism among educators. In Teachers We Trust is essential reading for all teachers, administrators, and parents who entrust their children to American schools.

Designed to accompany the Open University course Developing Intensive Curricula:Equality and Diversity in Education, Vol 1 will appeal to research students undertaking research in the area of education, focusing on special needs.

Grounded in the reform effort of a large state university with a history of excellence in teacher education, this book provides teacher educators and institutions with a valuable resource for navigating the choppy waters of reform. Contributors, all involved in the reform process, tell the story of the University of Florida's efforts in the mid-1990s to unify general and special education in its teacher education program. The book examines various aspects of the reform process, explains challenges faced by teacher educators within today's context and particularly within the context of large research institutions, presents strategies leaders use to keep reform on track in spite of challenges, and includes detailed descriptions of the nature and structure of the reformed program. Also included are valuable insights of teacher education experts from other institutions to contextualize the particulars of this reform within the national education and teacher education scenes.

This book is a longitudinal study of a 10-year experimental teacher education program. Follow-up studies and writing continued for 6 years after the program closed. This case study describes a search for effective and socially just practices within a long-term reform initiative intended to prepare teachers for urban schools. The program was run through a Professional Development School--a collaboration between a university program and a diverse group of practicing teachers; and the book was written collaboratively by many of the participants—faculty, mentor teachers, doctoral students, and teacher candidates/graduates. There are few longitudinal studies of teacher education programs, especially ones that focus on what was learned and told by those who did the learning. The narratives here are rich, diverse, and multivocal. They capture the complexity of a reform initiative conducted within a democratic context. It’s difficult, messy and as varied as is democracy itself. The program was framed by a sociocultural perspective and the focus was on learning through difference. Dialogue across difference, which is more than just talk, was both the method for doing research and the means for learning. The program described here began in the ferment of teacher education reform in the early 1990s, responding to the critics of the mid-1980s; and this account of it is finished at a time when teacher education is again under attack from a different direction. Criticized earlier for being too progressive, teacher education is now seen as too conservative. The longitudinal results of this program show high retention rates and ground the argument that quality teacher preparation programs for teaching in urban schools may well be cost effective, as well as provide increased student learning. This is counter to the current move to shorten teacher preparation programs, at a time of low teacher retention in our under resourced urban schools. The book does not advocate a model for teacher education, but it aims to provide principles for practice that include school/university collaboration, democratic dialogue across differences, and inquiry as a way to guide reform.