The "Report of the Holmes Group: Tomorrow's Teachers" (1986) impacted the teacher education reform movement. The epistemological methodology inherent in its proposal requires consideration to establish its philosophical foundations and to appreciate the special nature of its teacher education model. Comparison with a dissimilar epistemological methodology can highlight the Holmes plan--its various epistemological characteristics as well as its strengths and weaknesses. Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological methodology functions from a different frame of reference. Implications for a teacher education model are discoverable with Merleau-Ponty's writings. Knowledge--its definition, description, and the process of knowing--are considered by both the Holmes writers and by Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The value of knowledge, its evaluation, and its content are conceptually of a different character and describe contrasting methodological models. Both epistemological methodologies are discussed separately and then compared/contrasted as epistemological methodologies inherent in a teacher education model. (Author)