Chapter 4: Contesting Institutional Epistemologies of Diversity: The Shift to a Global/Local Framework in Teacher Education

Teacher education is a critical arena for supporting preservice teacher candidates’ exploration of their own identities and practices in local and global contexts. Where and when students might undertake this project depends greatly on the values and culture of the institution, and the extent that teacher educators commit to what Willinksy (1998) termed “educational accountability” (p. 16, emphasis added). Unlike the typical calls for teacher accountability that link teacher worth and success to P–12 learners’ standardized test scores, this form of accountability concerns “such divides as East and West, primitive and civilized … how the world has been constructed around centers and margins, and how these divisions were bolstered through forms of scholarship supported by imperialism” (p. 16). In this broader sense, teacher educators are responsible for teaching an “account” of how education—including schooling—has reinforced and reproduced divisions that have shaped how we see and experience the world.