Problematizing the Taken-For-Granted: Talking Across Differences in Teacher Education

Teacher education, as a profession, advances when a set of “taken-for-granted” ideas that shape the field are crystallized and enacted. These ideas are communicated as truths and frame the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of effective P-12 teaching. It is important, however, we do not become too comfortable with the familiar ways of operationalizing the field, but as policymakers, practitioners, and researchers, we continue to problematize the taken-for-granted teacher education dogmas so discussions across differences (i.e., terminology, language, sensemaking, etc.) can occur. This needs to happen because “ . . . education is a conversation aimed at truth . . . The object is not agreement but communication . . . ” (Schwab, 1953, p. 9). Matsko et al. (this issue) point to recurring debates on traditional versus alternative versus residency teacher preparation programs (TPPs); each program type possesses certain characteristics. However, these traits are not universal. For example, in the 337 years since Frances’ first École Normale prepared teachers, teacher preparation did not involve an academic degree. Yet today, a non-degree TPP in the United States is an “alternative” program. Researchers need to be mindful of differences locally, nationally, and internationally, especially where TPP clinical experiences are concerned. The U.S. definition of a traditional TPP is an undergraduate (UG) or post-baccalaureate (PB) degreebased program. The definition is agnostic to clinical experience type (student teaching, residency, internship). UG teacher candidates cannot be teachers-of-record, so their traditional TPP must culminate in a non-teacher-of-record clinical experience (student teaching or residency). PB teacher candidates at traditional and alternative TPPs have the option of being teachers-of-record and therefore student teaching, residencies, and internships are all options (Henry et al., 2014; Matsko et al., this issue) found important differences in clinical experiences and prerequisites across program types. Rec Educationalists should be mindful of legal, practical, and lay differences in terminology. Also, teacher residencies, which trace to America’s normal school past, call for close relationships between schools and universities that largely have not existed for some time. University and school district partners must overcome what has been described as the “two-world” trap (Anagnostopoulos et al., 2007), especially when policies are top-down. Despite lack of clarity, universities and schools are joined-at-the-hip (Chu, 2021). On one hand, non-compliance could put teacher educators out of their jobs. On the other hand, teacher attrition exacerbates districts’ staffing crises. On its own, teacher attrition, a commonplace theme in the literature, continues to be a mind-boggling challenge both nationally and internationally (Craig, 2017). It is disruptive to student learning (Ronfeldt et al., 2013), expensive (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2014), and varies across contexts. In Texas, new teachers prepared by UG traditional TPPs are more likely to remain in the classroom than PB teachers prepared by alternative TPPs, but the ethnicity of the new teacher and the type of initial school employment matter. Teachers of color are most likely to remain in the classroom after accounting for TPP differences (Van Overschelde & Wiggins, 2019) and teachers employed initially by public “charter” schools are less likely to remain in the profession than teachers employed in “traditional” public schools (Guthery & Bailes, 2022). Goldhaber et al. (this issue) found other factors correlated with new teacher attrition in Washington schools. For instance, the effectiveness of the cooperating teacher was not associated with teacher persistence (c.f., CAEP Standard 2.2), but matching school type (i.e., elementary) and student characteristics between the student teaching school and the initial employment school were associated with greater teacher persistence. These results offer meaningful factors for EPPs placing student teachers and principals hiring new teachers. Another taken-for-granted idea in teacher education is what constitutes effective teaching, who is the effective teacher candidate, and how to account for both (Tatto et al., 2016; Van Overschelde, 2022). Can the word, effective, be used without conjuring up the behaviorist paradigm 1089790 JTEXXX10.1177/00224871221089790Journal of Teacher EducationCraig et al. editorial2022