Australian Journal of Teacher Education
Abstract
What does school-based teacher education mean in the United States? Certainly, it does not mean that funding, decision-making and management of programs are the province of individual school districts; in the United States, teacher education is firmly ensconced in higher education. The overwhelming majority of teachers are prepared in colleges and universities, licensed by individual states, and employed by local school districts. Law, tradition, and funding suggest that this general pattern will not change soon. While teacher education is located primarily in higher education institutions, school-based teacher education exists. It exists in many forms, ranging from student teaching and other field experiences in which students apply concepts and skills learned on campus to comprehensive partnerships among higher education institutions and local school districts for comprehensive initial and continuing teacher development. In this article, we explore several configurations of school-based teacher education. We first present brief scenarios that illustrate common schoolbased patterns, then describe several configurations currently in operation in the United States. We then summarise some of the issues inherent in school-based teacher education.
Recommended Citation
Ducharme, M. K., & Ducharme, E. R. (1993). School-Based Teacher Education in the United States : An Uneven Evolution. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 18(2). https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.1993v18n2.3