Article 2: Did Teacher Educators Choose the Wrong Tradition?: Teacher Education in Texas After World War II

Teacher education remains a largely unexplored area within the history of American education. A few books on the topic have been published within the past fifteen to twenty years, but the type of work that is needed—specifically institutional histories and state-specific stories—remains rare at best (Null and Ravitch 2006, Fraser 2007, Lucas 1999, Herbst 1989, Labaree 2004, Ogren 2005). This paper is an example of the types of state-specific stories that are needed as university administrators and policymakers make critical decisions about the content and purpose of teacher ed curriculum. These decisions, in turn, have a direct impact on the status of the teaching profession and, by extension, the quality of schooling that children receive.