Section archive - Teacher Education Programs

This paper seeks to establish the parallel relevance of Lave and Wenger's Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Lave & Wenger, 1990) to South Africa's post-colonial legitimation of alternative sites. The South African Qualifications Authority highlights the fact that the pedagogical approach of such sites is context- and learner-centred with demonstrable socially valuable skills. The approach confronts and deconstructs the colonial marginalisation of human capital from outside ‘formal’/official institutions. It is part of the ideological framework of redressing the race and class exclusion mechanisms of artisans and others from the landscape of skills possession.

Research indicates that empowering future teachers as reflective professionals requires teacher education programmes to structure learning experiences that model reflective practice and facilitate the development of engaged learning communities. Through case study research this group of preservice teachers was able to gain a contextual understanding of early adolescents that not only impacted their perception and understanding of the target age group, but also allowed them to negotiate their preconceptions.

In this paper, the authors describe a model for systematically improving the mathematics preparation of elementary teachers, one lesson at a time. They begin by identifying a serious obstacle for teacher educators: the absence of mechanisms for developing a shareable knowledge base for teacher preparation. They propose their model as a way to address this challenge. The authors conclude by presenting data indicating that the model is effective in generating and vetting knowledge that helps to improve the mathematics program over time.

In this article, the authors examine the effectiveness of the ACT program over a 6-year period in providing qualified teachers for urban schools. The program was designed to restructure teacher education as a shared school-university responsibility and to reflect best teacher preparation practices that address the diverse needs of students in urban communities. Demographic and survey data were gathered from 6 years of program graduates. Overall, graduates reported satisfaction with their preparation and teaching careers.