ABSTRACT
The main long-standing view of teaching is the notion that it is predominantly women's work, akin to child-raising. Teaching is complicated work, but so are preparing and supporting quality teachers. For decades, researchers have examined whether preservice teacher education has an influence on the perspectives and practices of the teachers whom it prepares, and if so, how and to what extent. Like teaching, teacher education can be characterized by a contested history and enduring complexities that shape the work. Historically teacher-education programs have come in all shapes and sizes, though they have mainly consisted of differing combinations of four primary approaches to the professional learning of teachers. Kenneth Zeichner and Robert Tabachnick were interested in examining the claim that beginning teachers may not be much changed by their teacher-education experience. These two researchers investigated a puzzling phenomenon: beginning teachers seem to exhibit few, of the progressivist, liberal approaches their university programs espouse.
