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ERIC Number: EJ869450
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 3
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0890-6459
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Teacher Education, Deregulation, and the Neoliberal Global Agenda
Stairs, Andrea J.; Hatch, J. Amos
Teacher Education and Practice, v21 n4 p455-457 Fall 2008
Lois Weiner (2007) asserts that neoliberalism is "a lethal threat to U.S. teacher education" (p. 274). In this paper, the authors argue that neoliberalism poses the most important challenge faced by teacher education in an increasingly global society. Neoliberalism is having a direct impact on U.S. teacher education in the form of the deregulation of teacher preparation and licensing, most notably promoted by federal legislation in the No Child Left Behind Act. The government defines a "highly qualified" teacher as one who has obtained full state certification or passed the state licensing exam. The legislation notes that any state-approved route to certification is acceptable. As a result, almost all states have witnessed an explosion of alternative programs that allow for an end run around the rigorous pedagogical preparation required in most university-based teacher education programs. In the face of the neoliberal global agenda, the authors believe that teacher educators need to expose and resist the taken-for-granted "common sense" being propagated by neoliberal think tanks and their wealthy and powerful backers. Teacher education students need support in developing their critical consciousness, and they need practice reflecting and acting on the world to transform it. The primary challenge of teacher education in an increasingly global society is to not capitulate but to resist the powerful forces of neoliberal forms of deregulation, deprofessionalization, and cultural domination.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education; Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: No Child Left Behind Act 2001
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A