Consistent with the anniversary theme of this special issue of ATE, this article offers an overview of 40 years of advocacy for social justice- and equity-centered teacher preparation through three extended examples from the author's own work. Arranged chronologically and shaped by differing policy and political landscapes, the examples represent…

The fact that "philosophy," to many people, is just a mysterious word that brings to mind images of white beards and mysticism is no surprise. Contemporary society seem to have little reason to value a field devoted to ideas rather than production. Simply, philosophy is impractical, a distraction from the important world of growing an…

While studies have shown that mentoring is central to new teacher development, few investigations have examined what mentors learn about themselves as mentors. The purpose of the study was to illuminate mentor learning. The article reports on two case studies that investigated the development of mentoring expertise over a two-year period. During…

This paper argues the need for coherent, holistic frameworks offering insightful understandings as well as viable, connected and synergistic solutions to schools in addressing pressing problems arising from the acknowledged gaps between research, practice and professional development. There is a need to conceptualise a comprehensive conceptual…

Teacher education systems worldwide are confronted with the essential question of how to foster both future teachers' theoretical and practical knowledge and to adequately enable future teachers to connect their theoretical and practical knowledge for teaching. This article investigates how future teachers acquire general pedagogical knowledge…

In this article, we examine teacher educators' views on research-based teacher education. Finnish research-based teacher education has four characteristics: (1) the study programme is structured according to a systematic analysis of education; (2) all teaching is based on research; (3) activities are organized in such a way that students can…

Federal, State and school-based professional development has become a multi-million dollar educational enterprise in Australia. Yet there are no published models for the making of systems-level professional development policy. Reviewing the literature on the characteristics of effective professional development programs, this paper proposes a…

This article uses Andrew Abbott's concept of jurisdictional challenge to analyze the current challenges facing university-based teacher educators. The author suggests that teacher educators are dangerously close to losing jurisdiction over two key professional tasks--the preparation of new professionals and the production of academic knowledge for…

Since the mid-1980s, arts policymakers in Minnesota have positioned "media arts"--defined as the "study and practice of examining human communication through photography, film or video, audio, computer or digital arts, and interactive media"--within the realm of aesthetic education and considered it one of six arts areas. This…

The necessity of the foundational courses that take place in teaching courses in teacher education programs is a much-debated topic. Some writers argue that these courses are important since they help teachers and teacher candidates understand the dynamics in the process of teaching and learning and assist teachers in thinking extensively about…

At the heart of many current debates about curriculum and curriculum policy is an inadequately conceptualized and articulated notion of teachers' professional discretion. This paper begins to detail a normative and descriptive theory of the social and individual conditions required for the development of professional discretion. A better…

Asserts that reviews like that of M. Wang, G. Haertel, and H. Walberg are stimulating and useful in thinking about educational research, but they are nearly useless in thinking about educational policy and practice. It is not clear what is meant by "knowledge base," and the finding about proximal and distal variables is simplistic. (SLD)

This document contains 14 papers from the skills for the new millennium section of an international conference on vocational education and training (VET) for lifelong learning in the information era. The following papers are included: "Research on Vocational Education and Training as a Field for Knowledge Development--Starting Points for the…

This handbook presents the perspectives of more than 60 leading authorities on the study and practice of adult and continuing education. The following are among the papers included: "A Selective History of Adult Education Handbooks" (A.L. Wilson, E.R. Hayes); "The Concept of Critically Reflective Practice" (Stephen D.…