An Arena for Educational Ideologies

Miriam Ben-Peretz is professor Emerita of Education at the University of Haifa, former Dean of the School of Education, and recipient of the Israel Prize for Research in Education 2006, the AERA, Division K Legacy Award, the AERA Divison B Lifetime Achievement Award and the EMET Israel Prime Minister Prize for Educational Research. She is also an Elected fellow of the AERA since 2014.Sharon Feiman-Nemser is the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Professor of Jewish Education at Brandeis University where she founded the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education and the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program. She also served on the education faculties at the University of Chicago and Michigan State University. A pioneer in research on teacher learning, she has written extensively on teacher education, learning to teach, mentoring and new teacher induction. Teachers as Learners, a collection of her seminal writings, was published by Harvard Education Press (2012). She was the first recipient of the Margaret Lindsey Award for Outstanding Research from the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (1996).

Educational processes are shaped by societal ideas and values. Different ideologies shape the discourses, content, processes and pedagogies of teacher education processes. The book includes cases or illustrations of teacher education in the Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia and Pistoia traditions, as well as the democratic tradition embraced by the Kibbutz Movement in Israel. Understanding the ideologies that constitute the basis of teacher education programs might predict some of the outcomes of diverse programs on one hand, and serve the adaptation of teacher education to societal needs and requirements, on the other hand. Purposes of schooling, the value of knowledge and the relationship between teacher education and the goals of a democratic society have to be clarified in order to improve education in the service of society and its future. The work of schools depends on the interaction between content, teacher and student. Therefore, the preparation of teachers becomes a central aspect of education.

Foreword - John Chi-Kin LeeIntroduction - Miriam Ben-PeretzAcknowledgementsChapter 1: Democracy in Classrooms: The Story of Democratic Teacher EducationDafna Granit-Dgany and Raviv ReichertChapter 2: Educational Hyper-Ideology and The Test of TimeEsther YogevChapter 3: Montessori Ideology and Practice in Teacher EducationJacqueline CossentinoChapter 4: What Can Teacher Educators Learn from Italian Pre-Schools?Lella Gandini and Carolyn EdwardsChapter 5: Integrating Waldorf Education Principles with Traditional Teacher EducationGilad GoldshmidtChapter 6: Undermining Teacher Education: Neo-Liberal WorldviewsShlomo BackIndexAbout the Editors and Contributors