Winner of the 2019 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book
Award
Winner of 2018 AESA Critic's Choice Award
Teacher accountability has been a major strategy for "fixing" education
for the last 2 decades. In this book, Cochran-Smith and her research
team argue that it is time for teacher educators to reclaim
accountability by adopting a new approach that features intelligent
professional responsibility, challenges the structures and processes
that reproduce inequity, and sustains multi-layered collaboration with
diverse communities. The authors analyze and critique major
accountability initiatives, including Department of Education
regulations, CAEP accreditation procedures, NCTQ teacher preparation
reviews, and edTPA, and expose the lack of evidence behind these
policies, as well as the negative impact they are having on teacher
education. However, the book does not conclude that accountability is
the wrong direction for the next generation of teacher education.
Instead, the authors offer a clear and achievable vision of
accountability for teacher education based on a commitment to equity and
democracy.
Book Features:
- Proposes a new approach to reclaim accountability: democratic
accountability in teacher education.
- Offers a historical overview of accountability in the era of education
reform.
- Embraces accountability and reconstructs its targets, purposes, and
consequences in keeping with the larger democratic project.
- Introduces an accessible framework for investigating dimensions of
accountability policy and practice.
- Deconstructs four of the most visible education reform initiatives
relevant to teacher educators and education stakeholders.
