This paper analyzes how research has been misused in debates about the future of teacher education and offers several specific suggestions for improving the quality of this debate.

This article analyzes the role of venture philanthropy in shaping teacher education policies in the United States, with a particular focus on the role of the New Schools Venture Fund in promoting the Growing Excellent Achievement Training Academies for Teachers and Principals Act.

To trace the evolution of teachers as learners, we examine past and current staff development practices in light of our new vision of profession development, in which teachers’ knowledge-seeking goals are valued and supported and their work affords them opportunities to achieve their goals. We seek to understand the differences between staff development opportunities typically offered to “schools of teachers” and learning opportunities that situate teaching in a broader professional context. First, we describe these different orientations toward teacher professional development and illustrate them with examples of past and current practices. Next, we examine the theories of learning and teacher knowledge that may explain these differences. Finally, we review promising new practices such as teacher research in which teachers work together within and across schools to contribute to the professional knowledge base and the improvement of the teaching profession.

The paper analyzes three current approaches to teacher education reform in the U.S.- the professionalization agenda, the deregulation agenda, and the social justice agenda.