A. Lin Goodwin

Racial Identity and Education

Racial Identity and Education We investigate the sources of differences in school performance between students of different races by focusing on identity issues. We find that having a higher percentage of same-race friends has a positive effect of white teenagers’ test score while having a negative effect on blacks’ test scores. However, the higher the education level of a black teenager’s parent, the lower this negative effect, while for whites, it is the reverse. It is thus the combination of the choice of friends (which is a measure of own identity) and the parent’s education that are responsible for the difference in education attainment between students of different races but also between students of the same race. One interesting aspects of this paper is to provide a theoretical model that grounds the instrumental variable approach used in the empirical analysis to deal with endogeneity issues. JEL Classification: A14, I21, J15, J24

Teacher Preparation and the Education of Immigrant Children

This article looks at the issue of teacher preparation in light of changing demographics as a direct consequence of increased immigration. It begins by describing the current context in which many new teachers will find themselves. It then moves to a review of the teacher education literature over the past two decades to ascertain how the profession conceptualizes immigrant children and the education of those who will teach them. Using this review as a foundation, the article then outlines key issues that must be taken into account when preparing teachers to work effectively with immigrant children. The article concludes with recommendations for teacher educators.

Globalization and the preparation of quality teachers: rethinking knowledge domains for teaching

Preparing quality teachers has become a global concern as all nations strive for excellence at all levels. Yet, there is little consensus around what constitutes quality and how quality teachers might best be attained. This article takes up the issue of quality teacher preparation by exploring several pivotal questions: What might quality teaching mean in a global context? What should globally competent teachers know and be able to do? What are some of the issues, dilemmas, barriers, or structures that seem to interfere with teacher education reform and hinder movement towards internationalization in teacher preparation? The discussion is framed by five knowledge domains for teaching and articulates how these domains could support quality teaching in a global context.

Multicultural Stories: Preservice Teachers' Conceptions of and Responses to Issues of Diversity.

This article presents the multicultural stories of 75 preservice teachers, all of whom were student teaching in New York City. These stories reveal the kinds of concerns and questions preservice teachers have when faced with multicultural issues or dilemmas and provide the teacher education profession with some direction in terms of curriculum for multicultural teacher education. This direction or guidance comes from the students themselves and is based on the very real experiences they face in the field The article ends with recommendations to professional education programs—what programs should include in order to prepare teachers to serve the needs of todays children and youth.

Quality teacher educators = quality teachers? Conceptualizing essential domains of knowledge for those who teach teachers

Becoming a teacher educator involves more than a job title. One becomes a teacher educator as soon as one does teacher education, but one’s professional identity as a teacher educator is constructed over time. Developing an identity and practices in teacher education is best understood as a process of becoming. Though the work of teaching shares much in common with the work of teacher education, the two positions are significantly divergent in important ways.

What Should Teacher Educators Know and Be Able to Do? Perspectives From Practicing Teacher Educators

Commonsense reasoning says that quality teacher education relies on quality teacher educators. Yet, there is minimal attention to what teacher educators should know and be able to do. Unquestionably, teacher educators cannot teach what they do not know; but what should they know, and should they be prepared? This study of 293 teacher educators investigated the following: What do current teacher educators consider to be the foundation elements of their practice? How do they evaluate their own preparation in these areas? How can their experiences inform the preparation of teacher educators? We use Cochran-Smith and Lytle’s theorizing about “relationships of knowledge and practice” to understand knowledge essential to teacher educating (a term we use to differentiate teaching teachers from teaching students). Our findings reveal that practicing teacher educators often feel unprepared to assume their role but can offer helpful insight into how we should think deliberately about quality teacher educator preparation.

Assessment for equity and inclusion : embracing all our children

How students are assessed can determine not only the quality, type, and degree of education they receive, but has long-term consequences for their future. Assessment by standardized testing often labels poor and minority children in ways that exclude them from opportunities, while failing to measure their true potential. Assessment for Equity and Inclusion confronts the debate between standardized testing and alternative assessment methods, locating strategies of assessment by which students are included rather than excluded.

Confronting Ourselves: Using Autobiographical Analysis in Teacher Education

This paper introduces autobiographical analysis as a “disruptive strategy” that is deliberately structured to enable preservice teachers to develop new ways of thinking about teaching. Specifically, we:1) describe how we incorporate a process of critical examination of preservice teachers’ biases and assumptions throughout their preparation in the form of autobiographical analysis; and 2) present findings that document the transformation in preservice teachers’ thinking as they engage in these opportunities for critical examination.

Problems, Process, and Promise: Reflections on a Collaborative Approach to the Solution of the Minority Teacher Shortage.

This paper describes the work of a nine-college consortium that aimed to address the minority teacher shortage. First, the consortiums beginnings, aims, and activities are presented. Then the collaborative process is analyzed in terms of nine factors that have been identified in the litera ture as contributors to effective collaboration: (a) commitment of institutional officials, (b) mu tual needs and interests, (c) clarity about goals, roles, and control, (d) sufficient time, (e) energy, (f) effective communication, (g) resources, (h) leadership, and (i) ongoing evaluation. The analy sis resulted in the identification of three additional factors that support successful collaboration: (a) levels of collaboration, (b) continual redefinition, and (c) avoidance of interinstitutional conflicts.

Developing teacher leadership in Singapore: Multiple pathways for differentiated journeys

In this article, we examine quality teachers through teacher leadership development. Using Singapore as an illustrative case, we describe the redefinition of the teaching profession to include deliberate structures and multiple pathways designed to nurture teacher leaders, and the role of teacher leaders in supporting education reform. We go on to outline possible lessons or principles that could be educative to other systems regardless of local context or particulars. We end with reflections about the priorities that should be focal in the continuing quest for educational excellence—and equity—whether in Singapore or elsewhere in the world.