“We Brought It Upon Ourselves”: University-Based Teacher Education and the Emergence of Boot-Camp-Style Routes to Teacher Certification

Authors

  • Daniel Friedrich Teachers College, Columbia University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v22n2.2014

Keywords:

Teacher education, alternative teacher education programs, psychology, democratic education.

Abstract

The proliferation of boot-camp-style routes to teacher certification in the last two decades is seen by many university-based teacher educators as the result of the advancement of conservative interests aimed at de-professionalizing teaching. This essay argues that this view only accounts for one piece of the answer, the other one being that some of the foundational assumptions embedded in most university-based teacher education programs actually opened the doors for the boiling down of teacher preparation to the bare minimum. By situating the psychological sciences at the foundations of pedagogical knowledge and positioning them as the privileged lens to understand the learning subject, university-based teacher education has paved the way to its own disappearance. Both traditional and alternative routes to teaching can be understood, then, as part of the same system of thought, one that needs to be cracked open in order to be able to imagine other possibilities.   

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Daniel Friedrich, Teachers College, Columbia University

Daniel Friedrich is Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University. Prof. Friedrich is currently interested in the system of thought behind the travelling of teacher education reforms around the world, with a focus on the Teach For All network. He has published articles in Comparative Education Review, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education and the Journal of Curriculum Theorizingamong others. His book Democratic Education as a Curricular Problem will be available in late 2013.

 

Downloads

Published

2014-01-13

How to Cite

Friedrich, D. (2014). “We Brought It Upon Ourselves”: University-Based Teacher Education and the Emergence of Boot-Camp-Style Routes to Teacher Certification. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 22, 2. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v22n2.2014

Issue

Section

Articles