What do Beginning Teachers Need to Know?

Abstract

Do we prepare teachers for the schools we wish all children could attend or do we prepare teachers for the schools where they are most likely to find a position? The authors address the often-asked question What do beginning teachers need to know? by making the case that we must prepare teachers for the disparate conditions found on the educational landscape. Public policy decisions, economic conditions, and the teaching profession itself have created two systems of schooling in America. One system values the professionalism of teachers and believes education is broad in its definition. The other system offers a myopic focus on test scores and defines teaching as nothing more than content delivery. Schools of education must become agents of change by preparing teachers steeped in the realities of modern schools but aware of the power of an individual teacher to impart change.