What lies in the future for teacher education? Should it be removed from universities and consigned to schools under strict government control? Should professional preparation be done away with entirely on the grounds that only subject matter knowledge is needed? Or should it stay in the university context as befits a profession but be governed by the profession?
This book argues for the latter option. Such a choice represents a direction that serves to protect important pedagogical values embedded in teacher education programs in a manner that ultimately safeguards the public interest. Without it, teacher education would come either under direct government control (no longer benign) or be consigned to schools. But the book also exposes the complexities and nuanced difficulties that the self-regulation option poses for the governance and operation of teacher education. It is "the road less travelled," filled with contestation, in an era of intense neo-liberalist pressure toward market choices and de-regulation, but it is also a road we must travel if we believe in the viable contribution of teacher education to society.
This book sheds light on that journey. It traces how we have arrived at self-regulation in education at a time when it is under close scrutiny in other professions. More importantly, it describes from the inside the intricacies of contestation and what can be done to co-construct a way forward toward the desired balance of institutional program autonomy and rigorous protection of the public trust. It will show how accreditation processes potentially distort this balance and how it can be disentangled; it will highlight the difficulties that both teacher education institutions and professional bodies have in keeping their eye firmly on the societal purposes of accountability thereby ensuring that the public trust is actually safeguarded; and it will characterize the necessary struggles that teacher educators must engage under self-regulation if they are to protect the public interest by defending the knowledge base that is central to the profession.
