Building a One-Dimensional Teacher: Technocratic Transformations in Teacher Education Policy Discourses

Abstract

In the context of neoliberal reforms, teacher education policy discourses have shifted away from social justice imperatives toward technocratic approaches. I examine these shifts by applying the tools of critical policy and discourse analysis to accreditation standards and other policy texts of the last decade. Using Marcuse’s theory of one-dimensional subjects, I analyze how teacher education policy discourses position teachers as agents of social control whose work is to preserve the status quo and to legitimize the current structures of domination. This positioning is accomplished through the technocratization of teacher knowledge and depoliticization of diversity and equity in teacher preparation. The significance of this analysis lies in establishing connections between the technocratization of teaching pursued by the recent wave of teacher education policy discourses and the maintenance of inequality that teacher education redesign is expected to support.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the members of the Teacher Education Thought Collective—Nini Hayes, Mildred Boveda, Connor Warner, and Blanca Caldas—for productive critical conversations that illuminated the tensions embedded in teacher education policy discourses. I am also thankful to Michael Sedlak for offering support during the data collection for this project.

Additional information

Funding

This work was made possible in part by the American Fellowship from the American Association of University Women, a research grant from Auburn University’s National Alumni Council, and a research grant from the Spencer Foundation [#202000159]. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders.