Many teacher education programs, both in special and general education, remain strongly influenced by a technological orientation. However, alternative models, derived from interpretive programs of research that focus on understanding the complexity of teachers' actions and interactions with students and contexts, have begun to make their way into special education. In fact, it could be argued that special education teacher education is at a crossroads, where alternative models are more likely to proliferate. In this paper, we address the implications for and challenges of teacher education in special education if it were focused less on a technological orientation stressing the development of knowledge-for-practice, and more on Cochran-Smith and Lytle's (1999) conception of “knowledge-of-practice.”
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