Chapter 7: Experiences With Dispositions in Teacher Education

“Dispositions in teacher education” is surely a timely topic. At the 2006 AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education) meeting in San Diego, there were 24 sessions devoted to dispositions. At the 2006 annual AERA (American Educational Research Association) conference, there were a similar number of such sessions. Furthermore, there have been numerous op-ed pieces hostile to the notion of dispositions in general and more specifically to the idea that teacher educators take dispositions into account in either admitting candidates into programs or assessing their progress in the program. For example, Will (2006) wrote disparagingly “Many education schools discourage, even disqualify, prospective teachers who lack the correct “disposition,” meaning those who do not embrace today’s progressive political catechism” (p. 98). Most of the critical commentaries focus on cases where teacher educators elected dispositions with political connotations as goals of their programs. The controversies and trends in teacher education concerning dispositions prompt the questions: What is the history of dispositions in teacher education? What are the various definitions of dispositions in the teacher education literature? What are some enduring problems associated with teaching dispositions to our candidates and assessing their dispositions?