The Problem with Teacher Education Programs
Disrespect, bullying, dishonest rhetoric, disproportionate funding, lack of resources, unrealistic expectations, invasion of privacy… the list goes on!
I first started teaching in 2007. I was so excited to graduate from college with my degree in Music Education. I was going to change the trajectory of the world. I was going to be a force to be reckoned with! I was going to wear two-piece suits and heels everyday. What I walked into was a world of pandemonium. What I walked into was an environment that varied from day to day. What I walked into was much different than my experiences visiting schools gaining practicum hours, or even during my student teaching. I found myself crying for weeks at a time, being depressed, and doubting my career choice. Looking back on that time, I can attribute the shock factor to the extremely unrealistic Teacher Preparation program that I completed in undergrad. Teacher preparation programs are the contributing factors to the shock value that new educators are experiencing in the classroom.
Teacher preparation programs are often taught by professors that have long been removed from the classroom. This causes the prep programs to be disconnected from the actual realities of teaching. According to Jeremy Spencer in his 2018 article “GA’s Teacher Prep Programs Disconnected from Reality of Teaching” in the magazine All in Georgia “With all the emphasis on providing teacher candidates with more and better practice, of the 17 Georgia programs evaluated only Berry College pays sufficient attention to basic indicators of quality such as the teaching skills of the classroom mentor and providing regular observations and feedback to each candidate.” He also stated in the article that classroom management skills were overlooked. You don’t say.
When browsing different professor positions in education, the criteria is always the same. Ph.D or Ed.D preferred, as well as they want the professor to have previous experience in higher ed. Why would an educator that has been teaching K-12 for years have previous experience in higher ed? When was there time for such teacher to gain experience in higher ed when they were too busy trying to make a living being bullied in the K-12 spectrum? Most of the time when educators receive Ed.D and Ph.Ds they look into leadership and become principals or assistant principals. These requirements leave out a large pool of teachers with years of experience in the classroom that could offer a world of knowledge and truth to potential educators. We are aware that the World of Education is ever evolving so perhaps keeping the instructors current that teach the preparation courses would be nice.
As a teacher coach and mentor, I have experienced many teachers new to the building that come with the same unrealistic expectations that I had. These rookie teachers are excited about their bulletin boards, the look of their classroom that they believe to be their own space, the professional wear that they will dress themselves in, in general the aesthetics are extremely important to them. They shortly find within two weeks that the aesthetic is the least of what they should be concerned about. The different spirits of the students often suck the life out of them. The spirit of the power hungry administrators suck the life out of them so a week or two later, they are soulless skeletons walking around with a red nose from being sick. We know stress brings on sickness. There are many reasons for this stress, but the biggest reason for many new teachers is the unrealistic expectations, the long hours (that they are not paid for), and the pointless tasks. Pointless tasks are often assigned to teachers courtesy of power hungry instructional coaches, and administrators on a daily basis. The new teacher allows this to stress them out to the max. Keep in mind many of these inexperienced educators are young people starting their new lives. They have new babies at home, they are newly married, looking to buy homes, etc. None of this is taken into consideration in regards to mentoring them and bringing them into a building by administrators and their cliques.
You may ask why is it that new teachers are unaware of the pitfalls of Education and politics within a school building? Because their professors in their teacher education programs are often out of touch because they have been out the classroom for years working in higher ed or they have been out the classroom working in leadership in a K-12 school.
Perhaps Colleges and Universities could look at hiring teachers based on their experiences in the classroom. They could look at bringing in successful educators to work as an “Artist in Residence” in a sense. Cross over the fine arts world of Teaching Artist to Teacher Candidates. I can tell you from my 15 years in the classroom that 50% of being an effective educator is acting, the other 50% is building effective, rooted relationships with families and students. The new teacher could be aware of this if they were not in preparation programs with professors that have been out the classroom since the 80s. We can agree that teacher preparation needs a complete overhaul. Changes need to occur and they need to happen now.
