Disturbing Practice Reading Teacher Education as Text

Annotation Segall (teacher education, Michigan State U.) presents this critical analysis of teacher education, based on a year-long study of six social studies teacher trainees at the University of Western Canada. The author raises questions about what and how teacher trainees "learn, do not learn, and learn not to learn" in preservice education courses; how the structures, discourses, and practices in these courses encourage students to learn some things and not others; and how typical teacher trainee courses influence the classroom choices later made by graduates when they become teachers. Segall argues that traditional teacher training courses encourage compliance over true critical thinking, making it difficult to produce "critical teachers who provide critical education in our schools." Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)