Section archive - Teacher Education Programs

In this article, the author reviews the recent history of sexuality education battles. The author criticizes both Abstinence Only Until Marriage (AOUM) and Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) curricula. Furthermore, the author discusses how, in CSE's accommodation to AOUM objections, ethical dimensions of sex education may have been neglected in favor of evidence-based practice.

The roles and obligations of teacher educators have expanded substantially in recent years. However, the nation continues to face a shortage of faculty who can generate new knowledge about effective practices, and prepare a sufficient supply of new and highly skilled teachers. In this article, the authors discuss the current policy landscape, connections between the shortage of teachers and the shortage of special education faculty, and the role of the federal government in addressing these shortages. The authors conclude with a call for national dialogue—necessary so that the continuing cycle of faculty shortages and resulting shortages of those who directly serve students with disabilities may finally be resolved.

This article examines three ways that social movements have worked to stratify public education over the past century, with each movement experiencing an ideological shift in response to the civil rights movements of the mid-1900s. Three theoretical lenses help to differentiate what are really overlapping movements—namely, neoliberalism, Christian fundamentalism, and neoconservatism—that make attacks on public education and teacher education seem like “common sense.” Implications for reframing teacher education conclude the article.

This article is a brief analysis of the roots of TFA’s extraordinary rise as a major player in the world of educational reform and educational policy. In particular, the author focuses on the enormous marketing advantage that TFA enjoys over teacher education (TE) programs in recruiting students into the role of teacher. The author concludes that the competition between TFA and TE is a case of “heads they win, tails we lose.”