Routledge Rethinking Teacher Preparation Program Design: Embracing New Perspectives and Practices

This book provides a framework, concrete examples, and tools for designing a high quality, academically-robust preservice teacher preparation program that empowers teachers with the depth of professional knowledge and the skills required to become adaptable, responsive K-12 teachers ready to engage with diverse groups of students, and to achieve consistent learning outcomes. Renowned teacher educators Etta R. Hollins and Connor K. Warner present a systematic approach for developing a teacher preparation program characterized by coherence, continuity, consistency, integrity, and trustworthiness, as well as one that is firmly grounded in collaboration between faculty, community members, and other school practitioners. This book offers an evidence-based roadmap relevant for teacher educators, administrators, scholars, agencies at the state and national levels, and any organization that serves teacher educators. Review Policy mandates for program improvement in teacher education abound. However, even highly motivated change initiatives are often absorbed or marginalized by university norms of individualism and autonomy that work against the kind of collective work that is essential to program level coherence and improvement. Hollins and Warner offer the field a comprehensive, empirically-grounded and practical model for how teacher educators might navigate these challenges. The book begins with a well-articulated moral imperative for change, grounded in evidence of inequitable educational opportunities and outcomes for many students, particularly those in historically under-served communities of color. The authors integrate useful theoretical perspectives on teacher learning with very concrete examples and tools for program design, course alignment, and pedagogical collaboration between university and p-12 educators. The book will be an extremely valuable resource for teacher educators undertaking the practical work of program renewal and improvement. Charles (Cap) PeckProfessor of Teacher Education and Special EducationUniversity of Washington When teacher educators and leaders take on change efforts, they often feel isolated, as if theirs is the only institution experiencing the challenge of change. Historically, there have been very few comprehensive approaches to designing teacher preparation programming. Through this book, Hollins & Connor aim to provide teacher educators with practical tools and processes to build program coherence, continuity, and consistency for the purpose of preparing teachers who meet grade-level and subject matter expectations. Sarah BealExecutive DirectorUS Prep Teacher Preparation Texas Tech University About the Author Etta R. Hollins is Professor Emeritus and Ewing Marion Kauffman Endowed Chair for Urban Teacher Education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA. Connor K. Warner is an Assistant Professor of Education in the Urban Institute for Teacher Education at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA.