Traditions of Reform in U.S. Teacher Education

Abstract

Four traditions of reform in 20th century teacher education in the United States are described: academic, social efficiency, developmentalist, and social reconstructionist. Each tradition is il lustrated with examples from both early to mid-century and contemporary teacher education programs. It is argued that this framework of reform traditions can help clarify some important differences among ideas and practices in teacher education that appear on the surface to be similar.