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CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 34, 4 (2011): 118-134 ©2011 Canadian Society for

CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 34, 4 (2011): 118-134 ©2011 Canadian Society for the Study of Education/ Société canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation The Role of the Social Foundations of Education in Programs of Teacher Preparation in Canada Donald Kerr Lakehead University David Mandzuk University of Manitoba Helen Raptis University of Victoria Abstract This paper argues that the social foundations of education, and particularly the disciplines of history, philosophy and sociology of education, must continue to play an integral role in programs of teacher education. We report on the decline of the study of history of education within Faculties of Education in Canada as an example of the marginalization of the role of the social foundations in teacher education programs generally. In this context we furnish what we take to be some of the strongest reasons for the requirement for future teachers to engage with the social foundations—some of these arguments apply to all of the foundational areas, and some apply to specific foundational disciplines. Some of these arguments will be familiar, some new. We conclude that if a teacher education program in Canada is to be of a very high quality then it must include a strong social foundations component. Keywords: teacher education, sociology of education, history of education, philosophy of education, social foundations of education Résumé Cet article affirme que les fondements sociaux de l'éducation, et particulièrement les disciplines telles que l'histoire, la philosophie et la sociologie de l'éducation, doivent continuer à jouer un rôle intégral dans les programmes de formation des enseignants. Nous faisons rapport du le déclin de l'étude de l'histoire de l'éducation au sein de facultés SOCIAL FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION 119 d'éducation au Canada, comme un exemple de la marginalisation du rôle des fondements sociaux dans les programmes de formation des enseignants en général. Dans ce contexte, nous fournissons ce que nous pensons être parmi les plus fortes raisons, en tant qu'obligation pour les futurs enseignants, de se familiariser avec les fondements sociaux - Certains de ces arguments s'appliquent à l'ensemble des domaines fondamentaux, et certains s'appliquent seulement à des disciplines fondamentales spécifiques. Certains seront connus, d'autres nouveaux. Nous en concluons que si un programme de formation des enseignants au Canada se veut être un programme d'excellence, alors il doit inclure une composante importante sur les fondements sociaux. Mots clés: formation des enseignants, sociologie de l'éducation, histoire de l'éducation, philosophie de l'éducation, fondements sociaux de l'éducation 120 D. KERR, D. MANDZUK, & H. RAPTIS The Role of the Social Foundations of Education in Programs of Teacher Preparation in Canada In this paper we argue explicitly that the social foundations of education must form a strong component of high quality teacher education programs in Canada.1 Despite the declining role of the foundations in teacher education programs,2 we believe that there are good reasons for ensuring that students gain some exposure to the social foundations of education generally, and we believe that there are very good reasons why students need to gain some familiarity with knowledge and understanding gained from each of the disciplines of history, philosophy, and sociology.3 Recognizing the importance of the foundational studies, the American Council of Learned Societies in Education stated that teachers must “exercise sensitive judgments amidst competing cultural and educational values and beliefs” and therefore require such judgments to be shaped by “studies in ethical, philosophical, historical, and cultural foundations of education” (1996, p. 5). In 1996, the Council published the Standards for Academic and Professional Instruction in Foundations of Education, Educational Studies, and Educational Policy Studies. Endorsed by the American Educational Research Association, the Standards stipulate that roughly 16% of teachers’ professional studies should be within the realm of the “humanistic and social foundational studies” (Lucas & Cockriel, 1981, p. 342–43). Despite these standards, Faculties of Education across North America are increasingly characterized by unquestioned ideologies, often leaving prospective teachers with the erroneous impression that there is one “right way” to teach (Hare, 2007). In contrast, Liston, Whitcomb, and Borko have argued (2009) that teacher education should offer multiple—not singular—perspectives on teaching and learning (p. 107). Many others have written about the importance of the social foundations of education and their place in initial teacher education programs (Butin, 2008; Chartrock, 2000; Crocker, & Dibbon, 2008; Sadovnik, Cookson Jr., & Semel, 2001). Our own backgrounds are as scholars in the social foundations of education: one of us is a historian of education, one a philosopher, and one a sociologist. Collectively, we have over 40 years of teaching in several teacher education programs across Canada. 1 This paper is the development of work first presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education at Carleton University in May, 2009. That session was chaired and responded to by John Wiens, and we wish to thank him for his insightful response to our work at that time, as well as the participants in that session for their generous questions and feedback. We also wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers for this journal, whose comments have strengthened the paper greatly. 2 There are a variety of common terms denoting teacher education programs, including teacher education, initial teacher education, and teacher preparation. We use these terms interchangeably in this paper to denote undergraduate university degree programs offered concurrently with other undergraduate studies, or consecutively after a first undergraduate degree, leading to initial teacher certification in Canada. Many of the arguments we present apply to all aspects of teacher education, including mid-service, but we address our comments specifically here to initial, pre-service education. 3 While the social foundations of education often includes anthropology of education, and sometimes other areas such as aboriginal education, we confine our specific comments here to those disciplines we know best. We believe many of the arguments we provide apply equally to other foundational areas of study. SOCIAL FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION 121 While we each care deeply about our own disciplines, we each also feel strongly about the fundamental importance of strong teacher education programs, and are concerned that the role the social foundations play continues to diminish over time. We are convinced that if our standards for our school-aged students are going to be high, then our standards for our teachers must also be high—in terms of a deep introduction to their practice; in terms of the complex knowledge, skills, and dispositions they must understand and master; and in terms of their understanding of how contested much of educational practice is. We proceed in the following manner: As an example of the declining role played by the social foundations in our teacher education programs, we review the role that the history of education as a discipline has played in both teacher education programs, and in Faculties of Education, in Canada. We then canvas some of the strongest reasons for being concerned about the declining role of the foundations in teacher preparation; some of these reasons apply to the social foundations generally, and some to individual disciplinary areas. We conclude with some general comments about the role that the social foundations play in an initial teacher education program. The Changing Role of the Social Foundations in Teacher Education: The Case History The history of ‘history of education’ as a field of study provides a good example of the general decline in the role played by all of the social foundations disciplines: history, philosophy, and sociology. History of education courses, for example, have long been staple components of teacher preparation programs across North America. Despite the value claimed for them by the American Council of Learned Societies and others, the social foundations have been seriously marginalized in teacher education programs throughout North America (Christou, 2010). For example, an informal survey of 10 mid- sized to large universities across Canada indicates that between 1988–89 and 2008–09 there was a 45% decline in education faculty members whose stated area of expertise is educational history.4 Furthermore, throughout this 20-year period, every Faculty of Education surveyed had experienced a decrease in numbers of historians—even those for whom the overall number of faculty members increased. There are other indicators of history’s loss of prominence in educational studies. Although roughly 1,000 papers were presented at the 2009 conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE), merely 2% were historical in nature. Similarly, from 2006 to 2009, only 2% of the articles published in Canada’s flagship education journal—the Canadian Journal of Education—were historical in focus. This indicates a 6% decrease over the 2000–04 period. These data are not surprising when one considers that between 1996 and 2002, only 8% of Canadian history of education articles 4 Universities surveyed: Alberta, Calgary, Concordia, McGill, Manitoba, Memorial, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Simon Fraser, and Victoria. Information was also requested from Dalhousie, Lethbridge, Montreal, Queen’s, Toronto, and Western but these universities did not keep records from 1988. 122 D. KERR, D. MANDZUK, & H. RAPTIS appeared in education journals, the remainder appearing in mainstream historical journals. The reasons for this marginalization are complex. Many researchers attribute the decline uploads/Litterature/ ej-961491.pdf