This qualitative study examined a group of aspiring teachers who completed a pre-collegiate Grow Your Own (GYO) teacher program. The goals of the GYO program were to recruit and introduce high school students to the teaching profession and facilitate their transition to a teacher education program and eventually back to teaching in their…

There is a critical, nation-wide teacher shortage. Exacerbating this shortage is declining enrollment in teacher preparation programs that serve as a pipeline to the profession. To help address this shortage, school districts and teacher preparation programs across the country are implementing a variety of strategies to recruit high school…

Developing a scholarly, professional identity is one of the most difficult aspects of entering the field of higher education and teacher preparation. In this article, the authors describe the birth and success of Association of Teacher Educators' (ATE) Emerging Scholars program, a new program designed to help graduate students and those new to…

This three-part article addresses the role of identity as transmitted by my mother and the influences on my life first as a teacher and then as researcher. This ethnography is based on interviews of my mother about her life as a political prisoner in Cuba and her influences on my identity. This article is divided into three acts that address…

Teaching for social justice is an increasingly popular emphasis among P-12 teachers and teacher educators alike. However, research suggests teachers, and especially beginning teachers, struggle to enact their social justice visions when faced with the myriad of mandates characteristic of today's classrooms. In this article the author examines how…

This article argues that leadership knowledge should be included in teacher education curricula. The authors discuss the political realities that affect teachers and how these realities are best met with teacher leadership knowledge. Failure to include ideas of educational leadership in teacher education denies teachers an understanding of the…

The debate concerning who teachers are and what they are supposed to do continues with similar fervor as 100 years ago. In today's political climate, there is a resurgence in essentialism (a focus on traditional instruction and teacher-led curricula). As our nation's teachers face the demands of accountability standards imposed by recent…

The purpose of this article is to describe commonalities among teachers who have sustained passion for the teaching profession, identify ways to instill a similar passion in teacher education candidates, and encourage teacher educators to maintain and model an enthusiastic passion. The authors present the results of a study that consisted of…

In this article the author responds briefly to the three authors who reviewed his manuscript. Furthermore, he states that the service model that he proposed was not a compromise or a lesser goal for teachers than professional status; it was a more accurate and uplifting goal. The teacher as a service professional could have widespread support…

The belief that teachers are professionals has become so pervasive during the past one third century that it is increasingly viewed as a fact. This article reviews the 13 characteristics of a profession advanced by sociologists of occupations, and it provides evidence that teachers fall far short of achieving them. However, it is noteworthy that…

In this response to Donald A. Myers's "The Teacher as a Service Professional" (2008 [this issue]), the author suggests that teacher educators should not buy into Myers's concept because such would sell them short and be counterproductive to the advancement of the teaching profession. Teacher educators must not give up their struggle to advance the…

This response to Myers's concept of the teacher as a service professional considers each of his positions in analogy form. With support from the literature from education and elsewhere, the article maintains that teaching is a profession and that it matters greatly to teachers and society that it be strengthened as such. Examples are offered…

It has been generally accepted that teaching does not meet the criteria of a profession, at least as exemplified by the more mature professions of medicine and law (Abbott, 1988; Darling-Hammond & Youngs, 2002; Etzioni, 1969; Howsam, Corrigan, Denemark, & Nash, 1976). Teaching is most often referred to as a semiprofession; Myers's (2008 [this…

For many educators, citizenship preparation is the main goal of public education (Patrick, 2002, 2004). Yet, because of the nature of how individuals and groups within a society interpret the concept, citizenship may be redefined with each generation (Center for Civic Education, 1994; Giroux, 1988). This research therefore explored elementary and…

This article discusses recruitment approaches, relevant perceptions of the teaching profession, and the design of recruitment efforts. (MT)