An Arena for Educational Ideologies

Current Practices in Teacher Education Programs

Edited by Miriam Ben-Peretz, Sharon Feiman-Nemser

Publication date:

24 May 2017

Length of book:

160 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781475820249

Educational processes are shaped by societal ideas and values. Different ideologies shape the discourses, content, processes and pedagogies of teacher education processes. The book includes cases or illustrations of teacher education in the Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia and Pistoia traditions, as well as the democratic tradition embraced by the Kibbutz Movement in Israel. Understanding the ideologies that constitute the basis of teacher education programs might predict some of the outcomes of diverse programs on one hand, and serve the adaptation of teacher education to societal needs and requirements, on the other hand. Purposes of schooling, the value of knowledge and the relationship between teacher education and the goals of a democratic society have to be clarified in order to improve education in the service of society and its future. The work of schools depends on the interaction between content, teacher and student. Therefore, the preparation of teachers becomes a central aspect of education.

Foreword – John Chi-Kin Lee
Introduction - Miriam Ben-Peretz
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Democracy in Classrooms: The Story of Democratic Teacher Education
Dafna Granit-Dgany and Raviv Reichert
Chapter 2: Educational Hyper-Ideology and The Test of Time
Esther Yogev
Chapter 3: Montessori Ideology and Practice in Teacher Education
Jacqueline Cossentino
Chapter 4: What Can Teacher Educators Learn from Italian Pre-Schools?
Lella Gandini and Carolyn Edwards
Chapter 5: Integrating Waldorf Education Principles with Traditional Teacher Education
Gilad Goldshmidt
Chapter 6: Undermining Teacher Education: Neo-Liberal Worldviews
Shlomo Back
Index
About the Editors and Contributors

This is a wonderfully balanced book on two of the debate and conflict generating commonplaces of education, education’s entanglement with the political and the pulsating relationship of the individual and the social. The former preoccupies a sizable, often one-sided and overly energized, swath of postmodern literature while the second is thoughtfully configured in the writings of John Dewey. This book explores the expression of these universal themes in teacher education and does so in a manner attractive to the most thoughtful minds in teacher education and in ways consistent with Dewey’s critique of either-or thinking.