A Turning Point in Teacher Education

Since teacher education looked to become a formal field of study in the 1800s, it has historically contended with competing forces in the effort to solidify its professional identity. Currently, that contention is juxtaposed with those external forces that look to promote fast-track teacher training, with its ultimate goal to dismantle traditional teacher education programs, and those internal forces, whereby teacher education within itself continues to struggle with its own identity, power, and influence. To that end, this book, A Turning Point in Teacher Education: A Time for Resistance, Reflection, and Change, suggests we have reached a climax point, a turning point in teacher education, meaning we must work to resist and denounce those external forces that are laboring to undermine the professionalization of what it means to be a teacher. Simultaneously, we must also deeply reflect and be clear about those internal forces at work when it comes to solidifying the place, power, and necessity of traditional teacher education programs, ultimately announcing the furthering of what should be.