Negotiating Competing Progressive Era Reform Impulses at Teachers College, 1889-1927 (original) (raw)

8 An uneasy relationship: the history of teacher education in the university

For better and for worse, teacher education in the United States has come to be offered primarily within the institutional setting of the university. In many ways, this came about by historical accident. In the nineteenth century, teacher education, if it took place at all, occurred in a variety of organizational settings, until the state normal school emerged in the last quarter of the century as the emergent (if not yet predominant) model. In the early twentieth century, however, this model went through a rapid evolution, from normal school to state teachers college to general-purpose state college to regional state uni-versity. Since the 1970s, teacher education has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the university. Ironically, although teacher education was a latecomer to the university in the U.S., it was at the core of the original form of the university that emerged in medieval Europe. Early in this institution's history, an advanced liberal arts education was primarily in...

Teacher education reform as a story of possibility: lessons learned, lessons forgotten—the American Council on Education's Commission on Teacher Education (1939–1942)

Teaching and Teacher Education, 2000

The history of teacher education generally is reported as one of impossibility rather than possibility. This view is encouraged by lack of knowledge of past achievements. The little known but monumental project described in the eight volumes of the American Council on Education's Commission on Teacher Education (1939}1942) is reviewed in light of lessons learned about reform. Many of these lessons con"rm the value of recent work in teacher education that maximizes participation, builds partnerships between schools and higher education, and forms student cohorts as a means for overcoming program fragmentation. Additional results are identi"ed that deserve renewed consideration, results that emerged from projects that opened up possibilities for reform, including the value of child study as a form of professional development and as a means for educational renewal.

The Amateur Hour: A History of College Teaching in America

Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 2021

Jonathan Zimmerman is a highly esteemed professor of the History of Education at the Graduate School of Education of the University of Pennsylvania. He has written columns for some of the most prestigious newspapers in the United States, as well as The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Atlantic; Zimmerman has also been a frequent guest on public radio. His recent book, The Amateur Hour, provides an historical description and evaluation of this country's college and university teaching (referred to as college teaching throughout the remainder of this review) at the undergraduate level. Academics are one of the least understood professionals in the American landscape. Some people hold professors in high esteem and seek their views on many topics of national and international importance. Others see professors as ivory-tower, political radicals with limited experience in the topics for which they claim expertise. Most people are unsure of what professors do daily. It is understood that professors do some teaching, that they are usually well-read in their fields, and that they do research that is published in scholarly journals. Regardless of their impressions of professors, most people are proud of the degrees they and their children achieve from institutions of higher education.

"A War of Ideas": The Rise of Conservative Teachers in Wartime New York City, 1938-1946," History of Education Quarterly, 55, no. 2 (2015)

In this paper, I trace the rise of conservative teachers in wartime New York City in order to explain who these teachers were, why they organized, and how they wanted to change public education to restore it to an earlier, and supposedly better, era. This study allows us to piece together the formation of a conservative educational agenda that was built not on blind fear or willful ignorance, but instead on a competing worldview of the relationship between public education and democracy.

Teacher Education: Taking an Historical Perspective

This paper places inquiry into teacher education in an historical and critical context, raising questions and themes which are of interest to teacher educators as well as historians. The social contexts and human factors that influenced the development of teacher education in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries are examined. An inquiry is made into the institutionalization of teachers' preparation over the past l00 years with a particular focus on developing conceptions of professionalization. The paper identifies three paradigms of professionalization in the history of teacher preparation: teaching as a "calling," teaching as a "science," and teaching as a "craft." The process by which the second paradigm has come to dominate thinking about teaching and teacher preparation and the effects of this domination on the practice of teaching and preparing teachers are explored. It is noted that teaching as a "craft" is overshadowed ...

“Our Peculiar Institution”: The Field of Education in the Midst of a Liberal Arts College, 1888-1938

Although it had not officially closed, the College of William and Mary in Virginia had suspended classes as of 1881. Securing funding for operations with the promise of opening a normal school for men along side the liberal arts program, the College reopened for students in 1888. For several decades, the normal school attracted enough men to keep the institution afloat. Not until 1918 were women admitted to William and Mary, making the institution one of the only normal schools solely for men. This paper discusses the movement of the education program from a central to peripheral position as a result of the needs and visions of its presidents.