Chapter 10: Helping Teacher Candidates Develop A Critical Perspective in A Foundations Course: A Freirian Look at How Teacher Candidates Interpret Their Service-Learning Experience

Courses in the social, political, cultural, historical, and philosophical foundations of education in the United States are believed by many to help develop the critical thinking and problem solving skills of prospective teachers (Lukenchuk, 2009; Neumann, 2009; Pope & Stemhagen, 2008; Renner, Price, Keene, & Little, 2004). Despite overwhelming support for the importance of foundations of education courses, there are those who are calling for their removal from teacher education programs. Neumann (2009) and Pope and Stemhagen (2008) discuss the current attacks on foundations of education courses as viable components of teacher education programs due in part to a renewed call for standardizing all aspects of education. In this “economic utility narrative” (Neumann, 2009, p. 82), the demand for increasingly pragmatic coursework is deemed important in order to prepare teachers who will implement a prepared curriculum that does not require teachers to question or reflect upon the goals of education or how to meet the needs of all students. We argue that a pragmatic stance to education de-intellectualizes what is essentially a highly intensive intellectual profession (Giroux, 1988). Critically reflective teachers do not blindly apply techniques in the classroom, instead they think carefully, examining the context of the learning situation, which includes the backgrounds of their students, as well as their skill level and content preparedness. In order to construct learning opportunities to meet the competing demands of the lesson at hand, critically reflective teachers do this both as they plan their lessons and while the lesson is in progress. Once the lesson is complete, critically reflective teachers examine the results of their teaching in terms of student feedback and achievement to determine how to proceed.