The New Teacher Education: For Better or for Worse?

This article offers a reading of the current state of the field of teacher education, identifying current reforms, emerging trends, and new underlying premises. The author argues that a “new teacher education” has been emerging with three closely coupled pieces: It is constructed as a public policy problem, based on research and evidence, and driven by outcomes. Illustrating and critiquing each of these pieces, the article makes the case that the new teacher education is both for the better and for the worse. The article concludes that education scholars who care about public education must challenge the narrowest aspects of the emerging new teacher education, building on its most promising aspects and working with others to change the terms of the debate.