Stratemeyer, Florence B.

Florence B. Stratemeyer (19001980) made profound and long-lasting contributions to the field of curriculum and fostered the development of teacher education as a field of study. Stratemeyer's most significant contribution to the field of curriculum studies was the 1947 publication, Developing a Curriculum for Modern Living, which she coauthored with Hamden L. Forkner and Margaret G. McKim. In this work, the authors posit that those responsible for developing curriculum should go beyond the creation of broad goals and specific skills, and consider the sequence and continuity of student experience. They address the significance of acknowledging and incorporating student experiences outside the classroom, and identify everyday concerns emerging from “persistent life problems” of the learner as the necessary foundation for teaching and learning. These comprehensive concerns are organized into the categories of health, intellectual power, moral choices, aesthetic expression and appreciation, person-to-person relationships, intergroup relationships, natural phenomena, technological resources, and economic-social-political structures and forces. Though the authors do not propose that these persistent life situations should be a definitive guide for cur-ricular planning, they put forward that these concerns build meaningful connections between the learner and the subject matter to be taught and provide the impetus for active and engaged learning. The authors contended that curricular design must accommodate the unique development levels and learning styles of those that it serves, and warned that failure to do so could result in wasted time or worsestudents learning information that will not facilitate their eventual contributions to society.

In this and other works, Stratemeyer reconcep-tualized the role of teacher as not merely a director of learning, but as a guide in a student-centered, democratic environment. She believed that teacher candidates should evolve as critical, independent thinkers who would strive to encourage student achievement to the highest possible level. In a time of low standards and moderate goals, Stratemeyer's foundational principle of teacher education was to foster scholars who approached curricular decision making through the lens of “reasoned beliefs.” A professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University, from 1930 to 1965, she also earned her bachelor's, master's, and PhD at that institution. At Teachers College, Stratemeyer was instrumental in the identification of teacher education as a legitimate, respected field of study. Likely unbeknownst to her, her theoretical and pedagogical decision making became the standard of excellence for teacher preparatory programming around the country. She contributed many noteworthy publications to the field of teacher education. In 1948, she coauthored the School and Community Laboratory Experiences in Teacher Education, or “The Flower's Report.” This influential work surveyed developments in teacher preparatory programming in the previous decade, organized evolving patterns, and elucidated the possibilities that could be realized through employment of professional laboratory experiences by identifying nine guiding principles for that practice. Stratemeyer contributed other prominent works, including five chapters in the 1968 publication Teacher Education for a Free People, Working With Student Teachers, and New Horizons for the Teaching Profession in 1961. In 1965, the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education published her sixth Hunt Lecture: “Perspectives on Action in Teacher Education.” In this address, Stratemeyer identified and offered her view on eight ongoing challenges in teacher education.

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