Traditions of practice in U.S. preservice teacher education programs

Abstract

This paper extends work reported previously Liston and Zeichner's (1991) Teacher Education and the Social Conditions of Schooling by discussing how a conceptual framework describing four traditions of practice in U.S. teacher education can be used to understand the approaches to teacher education in individual teacher education programs. It is argued that all preservice teacher education programs in the U.S. represent particular patterns of resonance with all four of the traditions of practice and that no teacher education program can be understood in relation to only one tradition. The conceptions of teaching expertise embedded in the elementary teacher education program at the University of Wisconsin - Madison are discussed to illustrate how the traditions of practice can illuminate the commitments of teacher educators within particular institutions.