Daniel Buck explores the role education has played in today’s anti-Americanism.
Graduate schools of education (GSEs) are among the most influential institutions in American K–12 schooling. They prepare teachers, train school leaders, and shape and disseminate the ideas that hold sway in the educational system. Yet despite these institutions’ influence, there is little evidence that attendance at such an institution does much to improve teacher quality. This prompts the question, What do these schools actually teach?
To answer that question, I reviewed syllabi from courses at eight GSEs—over 400 readings from 75 courses. I sorted those readings into four broad categories of educational philosophy: traditional, progressive, critical, and therapeutic. Given that there are over 1,600 education schools in the United States and syllabi provide an incomplete look into classrooms, this report cannot claim to be either representative or comprehensive.
That being said, what it does unearth is concerning. The syllabi reveal deeply partisan institutions, advancing dogmas largely grounded in progressive and critical frameworks—belief systems that are focused on immutable characteristics and political activism while remaining actively hostile toward Western ideals and anything resembling traditional education. In particular, what stands out are the fringes to which many of the assigned texts reach—that teachers are being taught to “queer education” rather than teach math, for example, or that special education demands an “anti-capitalist politic” and “collective liberation” rather than instructional techniques to manage challenged learners. …
… States should
*Eliminate financial incentives that encourage teachers to pursue graduate degrees with limited demonstrated value,
*Strengthen accountability by tying funding and accreditation to measurable outcomes,
*Expand high-quality alternative certification pathways, and
*Encourage greater intellectual diversity and instructional rigor within GSEs.
Improving teacher preparation will not usher in a new utopia of American education. But given that teachers are arguably the single most important in-school factor for a child’s success, reforming teacher preparation could prove to be one of the most consequential factors to improve our children’s schools.
