Countering the Essentialized Discourse of Teacher Education

Overview & Synopsis

In this paper, the authors engage in a collaborative inquiry illustrative of a dialogical process of meaning making addressing the future of teacher education in times marked by uncertainty, intense public and political scrutiny, changing policy, and imposed learning standards. The authors urge teacher education programs and teacher educators to reclaim their crucial role in driving education discourses rather than submitting to mandates based on flawed ideological assumptions about teaching, learning, children, and communities. Teacher educators need to participate in the counternarrative of the de-essentializing "turn" in teacher education. By critiquing and problematizing minimalist and flawed assumptions driving education policy, teacher education programs can shift the focus back to advocating for what is relevant and meaningful to the communities they serve. De-essentializing teacher education necessitates embracing complex curricula and pedagogies of unknowability, rather than perpetuating simplistic disciplinary pedagogies of safety and certitude.