Micropolitical and Identity Challenges Influencing New Faculty Participation in Teacher Education Reform: When Will We Learn?

by Diane Yendol-Hoppey, David Hoppey, Aimee Morewood, Sharon B. Hayes & Meadow Sherrill Graham
Teacher education faculty face increasing pressure to simultaneously strengthen and reform teacher education programs while maintaining research productivity. The demands placed on teacher education programs to increase relevancy by strengthening clinical components of teacher preparation has once again reached the fore. The energy for this reform often rests on the shoulders of tenure earning faculty who have developed as engaged scholars during their doctoral preparation and wish to continue this work as they enter the professoriate. This qualitative study describes six challenges faced by new faculty who assume leadership in clinically rich teacher education reform and identifies faculty identity and micropolitical concerns as central to navigating challenges. A most important implication drawn from this study is that doctoral programs are now preparing new faculty who embrace clinically rich teacher preparation but do not receive adequate support as they enter academia. In the end, our newest faculty are quickly socialized away from clinical aspects of teacher education. After reviewing each of these persisting challenges, we discuss two assertions that must be resolved by university, college, and department leadership as well as tenured colleagues if we wish to support new faculty involvement in developing clinically rich teacher education reform.
post a comment

Finding the Balance Between Process and Product Through Perceptual Lesson Planning

by P. Bruce Uhrmacher, Bradley M. Conrad & Christy M. Moroye
This paper examines the lesson planning process, a neglected area of study, and puts forward a perceptual or arts-based approach that focuses on the engaged experience of the teacher.
post a comment

In Re Lamento: An Honest But Unfortunate Debtor Is Entitled To Sleep At Night Without Worrying About Unpayable Student-Loan Debt

by Richard Fossey & Robert C. Cloud
Over creditors' objections, a bankruptcy court in Ohio discharged the student-loan debt of a single mother of two who was living below the poverty level.