There is a growing recognition in teacher education that in order to work toward a more equitable and just society, programs of teacher education must explicitly engage with the political commitments of teachers and teacher educators (Cochran-Smith, 2005). They must prepare prospective teachers to address "societal structures that perpetuate…

This article investigates how the goals of participants in a video club evolved and became more shared over time. A video club brings groups of teachers together to analyze video from one another's classrooms (Sherin, 2004). The purpose of the video club the author investigates was to bring teachers together to analyze student thinking, an…

The work and lives of teachers have always been subject to external influence as those who are nearing the end of their careers will attest, but it is arguable that what is new over the last two decades is the pace, complexity, and intensity of change as governments have responded to the shrinking world of economic competitiveness and social…

Lasting change in teacher practice is difficult because it expects that teachers challenge and reconstruct deeply embedded practices and beliefs. Less research has examined teachers' change process to better understand what professional spaces foster teachers as they construct their own transformation. This qualitative study examined the following…

Teach for America (TFA), a non-profit organization designed to recruit recent college graduates to commit two years to teach in understaffed urban and rural schools across the country, has been heralded by private organizations and state agencies as a poster child for alternative pathways to teaching. However, at the same time, TFA has also been…

One of the main challenges confronted by higher education in the 21st century is to internationalize its programs and to make students more globally competent. This challenge is not new, but it has become increasingly complex. Gutek (1993) explains how the efforts to internationalize the university in the United States became particularly…

How does teacher change get conceptualized, supported, and realized? The authors address this far-reaching question by exploring how teacher collaboration, centered on examining student learning data, can result in changes in instructional perspectives and practices. Their case study consists of a middle school mathematics teacher group working…

This article presents the text of a presentation given by California Council on Teacher Education (CCTE) executive secretary Alan H. Jones at the CCTE Fall Conference in San Diego on October 15, 2009. Jones explores the concept of marginalization, and explains why he believes it applies very appropriately to the field of teacher education and…

In this article, the authors offer a descriptive essay outlining the framework and processes of a five-year institutional renewal effort at Bank Street College of Education. Extended the opportunity to participate in the "Teachers for a New Era" (TNE) initiative, a multi-year, multi-million dollar effort to enhance and "radically reshape" teacher…

American teacher education is stuck in an unproductive and dysfunctional pattern. American teacher education programs graduate thousands of newly certified teachers each year, but the evidence that even half of the new graduates are dynamic and capable teachers is weak. The reputations of the teacher education programs through which they pass are…

A number of socially transformative implications of connecting teacher education with urban schools and communities have been documented, including: (1) building trust with local communities; (2) creating a greater commitment to community through service learning; (3) preparing culturally responsive future teachers who are more effective when…

By taking the position that teaching for social justice is an act of necessity and solidarity, this work seeks to highlight two examples of teacher education initiatives. Because the relationships between teacher, student, family, school, and state are integral to the teaching process, three central questions guide the authors' thinking and…

There are powerful forces of resistance that must be acknowledged when introducing educational reforms that foster ecological intelligence. The foremost source of resistance is the paradigm gap that now separates generations. That is, the vast majority of university professors, classroom teachers--and thus the general public that has been educated…

This article reflects lessons learned from work with thousands of educators from all types of K-12 schools. While recognizing that there is no schooling-for-sustainability blueprint that fits all schools, the Center for Ecoliteracy--www.ecoliteracy.org--in Berkeley, California, has articulated a set of precepts that it calls "Smart by Nature."…

At points of instability in a system--whether a school, community, or any other social system--there is the opportunity for breakdown or breakthrough. In that moment of opportunity arises the possibility for significant change through the emergence of new norms or standards of behavior that reflect the evolving values of the larger group. What…