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Reimagining the Place and Curricular Space for the Field of Social Foundations of Education in Teacher Education: A Call for Communication and Collaboration

The field of Social Foundations of Education has been called upon time and time again to justify its place and curricular space in teacher education. Scholars have described the field as marginalized (Greene, 1976; Nash and Agne, 1982); in crisis (Shea, Sola and Jones, 1987); eroding (Sirotnik, 1990); in disarray (Johanningmeier, 1991); and in transit (Warren, 1998). In responding to these challenges, various scholars have attempted to reconnect (Shulman, 1990), reconceptualize (Soltis, 1991), reconstruct (Butts, 1993), reframe (Beadie, 1996), and reconceive of (Bredo, 2002) the field of social foundations in teacher education. In the past, critiquing social foundations was largely academic because states required coursework in the social foundations as one of the prerequisites to certification (deMarrais, 2005; Shields, 1968). Today, as states replace course requirements with standardized, outcomes-based tests as prerequisites to certification (deMarrais, 2005; Watras, 2006), school of education administrators and teacher educators hold extraordinary power over the place and curricular space for the field of social foundations in teacher education.
In this qualitative, interpretive study, I set out to understand how school of education administrators and teacher educators at a large, urban university in the Middle Atlantic Region of the United States that I call Jefferson University conceived of the field of social foundations and how and why the field appeared to be being squeezed out of teacher education. In doing so, I come to deeper understandings about where the field of social foundations has been and might be headed, not only at Jefferson University but in teacher education writ large. I then begin to reimagine the place and curricular space for the field in teacher education. Consequently, I call for communication and collaboration between foundations scholars on one hand and school of education administrators and teacher educators on the other.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12072006-015018
Date29 January 2007
CreatorsHill, Deanna DeNae
ContributorsDr. Maureen McClure, Dr. Amanda Godley, Dr. Don Martin, Dr. JoVictoria Goodman, Dr. Noreen Garman
PublisherUniversity of Pittsburgh
Source SetsUniversity of Pittsburgh
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12072006-015018/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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