Curriculum Studies in Relation to the Field of Teacher Education

Rather than work in a single discipline, faculty in professional schools, including education, work within a problem that is of compelling interest to stake holders. The contextual parameters within which professional schools operate shape the nature of the curriculum work done within them. In law schools, for example, the bar examination and the importance to school prestige of graduate passing rates and employment directly influence decisions made about course content, purposes, and pedagogy. When graduates do not do well on a portion of the examination, consideration will be given to changing the courses and instruction associated with that set of topics. Candidate testing also is an important part of teacher education. Academic and verbal skills, content area, and pedagogical knowledge are tested and the results influence course and program design. Similarly, satisfying accreditation standards for professional schools plays an important role in curriculum studies. Representing accepted professional practice, meeting these standards dramatically affects the nature of the curriculum. Ensuring continuing accreditation necessitates ongoing analysis of student performance in relationship to curricular offerings. When deficiencies are noted, program revisions follow.

Within teacher education, in addition to students, arts and science, education, and school faculties, including administrators, and various levels of policy makers are heavily invested in program development and revision. There is a fundamental tension running throughout much of this work: on one hand, the charge is to educate individuals who fit into and can with relative ease work effectively within schools as they currently operate; on the other, is the intent to educate educators who are able and positively disposed to involvement in system change and improvement. The importance of this later concern is evident in teacher education programs oriented toward social justice, inquiry, and multicultural aims, where the expectation is that teachers can, do, and must influence positively the wider society, making it more just and compassionate. Accrediting bodies have embraced both charges.

In addition, professional schools are deeply concerned with questions of identity and membership. Upon graduation, the expectation is that the graduate will be prepared for a vocation and possess the dispositions and modes of thinking characteristic of the profession. Proof comes in the form of a license or certificate granting the right to practice. Identity is less an outcome of courses than of the entire professional experience and as such, is part of the informal or hidden curriculum. Nevertheless, it is an important outcome strongly [Page 264]related to professional commitment—to those who actually engage in the practice successfully.

Finally, like theology schools that prepare ministers, education schools are necessarily deeply concerned about the kind of people who enter teaching. As a moral relationship, teaching not only sets the terms by which young people encounter the disciplines, but also provides standards of human kindness, caring, and decency.

Although the general problem that defines teacher education is how best to educate outstanding teachers, several related questions engage curriculum scholars. A few of these follow: The politics of teacher education, how decisions are made, who exercises influence and how, and how best to productively bring together the various stakeholders is an ongoing concern and research interest. Energy has been and is being directed toward identifying promising teaching practices for inclusion in the curriculum, especially for urban and minority children. Developing and refining models of assessment that fairly and accurately represent teacher impact on learning is of growing interest. The formation and sustaining of university–school partnerships remains a lively topic. New models of mentoring and forms of teacher collaboration are being developed and tested as are new patterns of field experience, including student teaching. Teacher beliefs and their impact on practice are a major focus of inquiry. Interest grows in teaching and technology and in the generation of new kinds of interactive materials. Questions of teacher development, life narratives, identity, and emotions are of growing consequence to curriculum scholars. Increasingly, individual teacher educators study their own practice, seeking improvement. Local program studies are gaining in influence. Work continues and grows in the various disciplines to gain insight into how they can better be taught and learned. Finally, curricular design work garners attention as teacher educators continue to seek to create content and course sequences, including between time spent in field studies and on campus, that better facilitate beginning teacher learning and development.

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