Rethinking Teacher Education – The Problem with Accountability

During the past two decades in the U.S. and some other countries, there has been a growing consensus that university teacher preparation is failing and that holding teacher education accountable through vigilant public evaluation and monitoring will fix it. Treating the U.S. as a kind of cautionary tale, this presentation exposes “the problem with accountability” by unpacking the assumptions underlying major accountability initiatives, revealing their lack of evidence, and arguing that they have a negative impact on the work of teacher education. Despite these problems, Professor Cochran-Smith does not conclude that accountability is the wrong direction for teacher education. Rather she argues that we need to “reclaim” teacher education accountability for the profession and in support of the larger democratic project.