Teacher education in institutions of higher education: A history of common good

ABSTRACT

In this article, I discuss seldom-acknowledged ways in which university teacher preparation has served the common good throughout its history. I focus on the U.S., where teacher education has contributed to the larger university mission to serve society. I offer a new synthesis of varied strands of historical scholarship to explain how, for two centuries, teacher-education institutions and programs have responded to public needs to sustain college enrollments and expand access to higher learning, and have been pivotal in expanding student diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. Understanding that preparing teachers in the university rather than through alternative routes serves the common good enhances research on teacher education in the U.S. as well as in other countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher education
• history of education
• university history
• normal schools
• college student diversity

Acknowledgements

I want to thank Linda Eisenmann, James Fraser, Michael Hevel, Marc VanOverbeke, and the journal's anonymous reviewers for their support and feedback on this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christine A. Ogren

Christine A. Ogren is a professor in the Educational Policy and Leadership Studies department at the University of Iowa.  She is author of The American State Normal School: “An Instrument of Great Good” (2005), co-editor of Rethinking Campus Life: New Perspectives on the History of College Students in the United States (2018), and a former president of the History of Education Society.  Chris is currently completing a book on the history of how teachers in the USA have spent their “summers off.”