Teacher Education in the United States of America: An Overview of the Policies, Pathways, Issues and Relevant Research

Reforms affecting teacher education have occurred rapidly in the U.S. beginning in the 1990s when policymakers became concerned about U.S. global competitiveness due to pupils’ low scores in international achievement tests. Several official policies have emerged over the years in response to quality concerns. Quality is understood in various ways: in terms of programs’ performance against accreditation criteria and in terms of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that teachers are expected to have and how these are reflected on their teaching practice, but also as simply represented by pupils’ tests results which are assumed to have a direct correlation with teacher preparation and performance. In this chapter, I review pivotal policies that have influenced teacher education in the last 10 years. After an abridged overview of the system of teacher education in the U.S., I conclude with a review of the major issues affecting the field and discussing implications for future research.