Taking Teaching Seriously expands and enriches discussions about teacher preparation in the United States. Its authors describe the unique contexts for teacher preparation offered by liberal arts institutions and analyze the effects of these programs on their graduates and on K-12 schools. They emphasize that the goals and conditions for teacher preparation differ from larger public institutions in several key respects including supervisor-student teacher relationships, philosophical foundations, and approaches to clinical fieldwork. Taken together, the essays provide evidence that educational studies programs in liberal arts colleges and universities constitute a vital component of the teacher education system in the United States. [Additional Contributors: Irving Epstein, Alice Lesnick, Alison Cook-Sather, Lisa Smulyan, Vicki Kubler LaBoskey, Linda R. Kroll, Christopher Roellke, Jennifer Rice, Susan Riemer Sacks and Charlotte Mendoza.]