To satisfy the ongoing demands of external communities, education faculty at liberal arts colleges often make curricular and instructional compromises within their programs which can adversely affect the developmental goals of liberal education. This article highlights several of the complex tensions faculty members face in offering their…

As pedagogy experts, teacher educators should lead the charge for improved teaching and learning, but are under-utilized pedagogy resources in liberal arts universities. In this paper, the collaborators, one a teacher education assistant professor and the other an associate professor of art history, identify critical friendship group approaches…

A majority of the teacher education programs in this country reside in liberal arts institutions. Most pride themselves on the benefits from having small and nurturing programs with strong relationships with students and an emphasis on teaching. There are many types of preparation programs situated within liberal arts institutions and also a wide…

In an era of specialization and standardization, what might the liberal arts offer to preservice teachers as they prepare for their participation in a demanding profession? The authors posit that teacher education programs housed in liberal arts institutions can provide rich mentoring opportunities for teacher candidates. While faculty in teacher…

This narrative outlines the process of how an independent liberal arts college integrated coursework and learning experiences focused on urban school teacher preparation with an existing university program in Urban Studies. Programmatic changes and additions to teacher education programs at independent liberal arts colleges are often very…

Although strong arguments espousing the accolades of arts involvement are evident, the visual and performing arts continue to be underfunded and underused in K-12 schooling and teacher preparation. Valiant efforts from arts advocates have made inroads to reverse this negative trend, yet policies and practices that reflect a commitment to "arts for…

Two separate research studies explored two types of experiential learning, situated learning and service learning, used in a liberal arts university setting to further understand their importance in the learning process. From both the service learning and situated learning research, two main findings emerged, limited student reflection and…

The CSI academies employed a multi-layered, collaborative approach to encourage diverse students to consider STEM careers, including science teaching. The academies recruited a diverse group of high school students. This was due, in large part, to the creation of a unique selection process that identified students with unrealized potential. The…

Teacher preparation in the Commonwealth of Virginia requires numerous competencies. Faced with the challenges of creating a new general education core, faculty at Emory & Henry College exploited the synergies of the new program, teacher preparation competency requirements and the literature on effective teachers to reinforce a 172-year-old liberal…

The school-aged population continues to diversify, yet the student body at small liberal arts teacher preparation programs generally does not. To help prepare our socioculturally homogeneous students to teach a more diverse student body, we developed a three-tiered approach that includes a diversity model integrated across the curriculum, an…

This study examines the preparation of preservice elementary teaching candidates in science content and methods courses and the relationship of their coursework to future teaching. One-hundred-five undergraduate elementary education majors participated in the study. Data was gathered through the completion of a background questionnaire and…

Although high-needs schools rarely provide extensive scaffolding for beginning educators, liberal arts colleges that are committed to the moral and intellectual development of teachers can serve a pivotal role in helping their candidates choose such schools and commit to serving in them for the long term. This article describes ways in which…

Federal educational technology grant coordinators from seven small liberal arts colleges were interviewed to determine the ways in which technology had been infused in teacher education programs over the life of the grant. Substantive integration of technology had occurred in each of the schools. Traditional change models were unable to explain…

The face of teacher education is rapidly changing. Teacher shortages, legislative changes, and adult career changers have prompted colleges and universities across the nation to develop new programs or redesign existing programs for teacher preparation. For universities, the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program has emerged as the panacea for…

The Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education (AILACTE), representing over 200 institutions nationwide, created the Models of Excellence (MOE) Committee to define exemplary qualities of teacher education preparation programs and to select and recognize programs that meet these high standards. With input from members of…