Chapter 4: Preparing Teacher Advocates for the 21^st Century

In this chapter, we make a case for preparing teachers in the United States to be advocates for their profession. Since at least 2002 and the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, U.S. teachers have faced an increasing number of mandates directing their professional practice. Yet, teacher preparation programs rarely prepare teachers to study or understand the policies they will have to follow, or to be critical advocates for (or against) such policies. Teacher preparation programs pay careful attention to many relevant and important aspects of training teachers, such as ensuring that future educators learn their craft, learn the discipline they will teach, and in some cases, focus on multicultural competencies. However, there remains a lack of attention to the policies that direct and guide preservice teachers’ future practices. The goal of this chapter is to describe why and how U.S. teachers might engage more actively with the educational policies with which they are asked to comply. By doing so, we aim to provide information to help prepare preservice teachers to become advocates of their profession.