Change Will Amount to Naught in a Leadership Vacuum.

Overview & Synopsis

In the teacher education field, each school, college, department of education (SCDE), school district, education professor, and professional teacher organization operates as an unrelated entity. There is a lack of any coherent direction to the reforms that are currently under consideration, and an absence of a unified voice for or about teacher education. Five basic questions which require consideration and agreement are: (1) What is teacher education? (2) Who is responsible for teacher education? (3) Who is the voice for teacher education? (4) Through what structure(s) can an agenda for the future of teacher education be attacked? and (5) What can be accomplished through unification? An appropriate line of action would be to communicate what teacher education is and is not, and within the parameter of what it is, to clarify the responsibilities of SCDEs. Teacher educators have been excluded from national invitational meetings called to discuss solutions to educational problems, possibly because there has not yet been articulated a clear, concise message as to what teacher education is and is not. The now fragmented teacher education associations could become united through a new Confederation of Teacher Educators which could provide leadership and speak to the public and state policymakers with one coherent voice. (JD)