Responding to Our Critics: From Crisis to Opportunity in Research on Teacher Education

Source: Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 59, No. 1, 10-23 (2008)

This article uses Andrew Abbott's concept of jurisdictional challenge to analyze the current challenges facing university-based teacher educators. The author suggests that teacher educators are dangerously close to losing jurisdiction over two key professional tasks—the preparation of new professionals and the production of academic knowledge for the profession. The author then argues for the need for researchers in teacher education to respond to such jurisdictional challenges by focusing on pressing policy issues regarding the preparation of teachers and by strengthening the quality of research.