The Teacher Workforce and Problems of Educational Equity

Abstract

this chapter, we examine developments in the teacher workforce and in the occupation of teaching across recent generations. We take our point of departure from the perspective of prevailing policy discourse on enduring problems of educational equity, asking not only how teaching has evolved in recent decades but more specifically how that evolution has mattered to the distribution of educational opportunity and the shape of educational outcomes. This terrain is arguably large, and the text necessarily reflects certain choices regarding focus and emphasis. Consistent with the overall volume, we focus principally on conditions in industrialized nations and on teachers as the object of policies intended to remedy problems of persistent inequity. We acknowledge but do not delve into the extensive and complex body of classroom-based research that locates issues of equity in teachers' pedagogical practices, their relationships with students and families, and the expectations they hold of low-income, minority, or special-needs students (Delpit, 1996; Hollins & Guzman, 2005; Ladson-Billings, 1999; C. D. Lee, 1995; Weinstein, 2002).1 In characterizing teacher workforce issues, our essay also reflects our deeper familiarity with the policy conditions and research activity in the United States than elsewhere. However, by reviewing international reports and studies, we have made an effort to locate American developments in a complex international landscape that demonstrates a visible institutional isomorphism in education and public policy (Meyer & Ramirez, 2000; Wiseman, 2010 [this volume]) while also preserving significant local variations (Anderson-Levitt, 2003) ? Our perspective is largely sociological, but