In this article, I examine the logic of holding teachers and teacher education programs accountable for their students' learning. Using a conceptual tool first proposed by Ryle (1949) called the "task-achievement distinction," I show that current assessment schemes, such as value-added assessment, credit or discredit teachers for achievements that…

Theorizing about teacher education and democracy is a challenging task in the year 2009. According to this author, the antidemocratic forces of the social efficiency movement have intensified with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, and recent activities of the Obama Department of Education have ratcheted up social efficiency's premise…

An underexamined yet critical aspect of any theory of reflective thinking is its ontological foundations--the view of reality that it embraces. This article makes an argument that realist assumptions, such as those advanced by John Dewey, provide a basis for teacher learning superior to theories of teacher reflection resting on nonreal…