Possible Futures for Teacher Education Programs: Meta-Theory Orientation

This study problematizes teacher education, and its accreditation guidelines as set
forth by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. The analysis herein
conceptualizes teacher education as contextually contingent on sociocultural
metanarratives, as functioning paradigmatically through consensus and gatekeeping
mechanisms, and as a structure existing within a matrix of discipline and surveillance that
is designed to perpetuate status quo power dynamics. This conceptualization grounds
dominant teacher education modalities within a specific meta-theory orientation.
Through this analysis, the author also explores an alternative conceptualization of
teacher education that appeals to the educative power of contextual awareness,
ontological sensitivity, and democratically recursive pedagogical and relational
processes. Such a conceptualization reflects an alternative meta-theory orientation. For the purposes of this analysis, the author employed textual analysis of sampled
website literature from Teacher Education Programs in six geographic regions within the
United States. This textual analysis was grounded in the aforementioned
conceptualizations and was intended to reveal meta-theory orientations as expressed in a
program’s official text.