Nobility, Competence, and Disruption: Challenges to Teacher Education

Overview & Synopsis

This article was comprises the keynote address presented by Gary D. Fenstermacher, at the Conference of the California Council on Teacher Education (CCTE), March 19, 2015, in San Jose, California. The subject covered Nobility, Competence, and Disruption and what they mean in teacher education. Fenstermacher presents his subject in four assertions: (First), "competence" consumes far too much of the rhetoric of education and nobility far too little; (Second), even though "nobility" is nearly absent from the rhetoric of education, it is alive but not altogether well in American schools; (Third), teacher educators exhibit a regard for both competence and nobility but their preparation programs typically stress competence and ignore nobility; (Fourth), and finally, "disruption" in teacher education may be the best hope for the earnest and simultaneous pursuit of competence and nobility. The remainder of the article presents the defense of these assertions.