Increasing Fidelity between Faculty and Field in Teacher Education--Reconceptualized Institutional Settings, Programs and Roles.

Overview & Synopsis

The purpose of this paper is to encourage greater interaction between university faculty and field-based teacher education. The paper is organized into four parts: (1) "Teacher Educators--Who Are We?" (describes the evolution of teacher education from 1850 to 1992); (2) "The Alienation of Theory from Practice in Teacher Education: A Schismatic Past and Present"; (3) "Faculty and Field as Complementary Milieus for Teacher Education--a reconceptualization of Institutional Settings, Programs, and Roles"; and (4) conclusion. The paper suggests that school of education faculty refresh and update their classroom knowledge by returning to full classroom responsibilities in order to keep in touch with the reality of the undergraduate candidates' mission of becoming teachers in the schools. Suggestions for further consideration are offered. The paper concludes with 103 bibliographic references. (LL)