ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to examine why an understanding of educational foundations is essential in teacher education. The chapter will be organized by three main sections. Section 1 will begin with a historical background on how educational foundations have been minimized. Section 2 will detail how historical and philosophical ideas are essential for teachers to understand how education as a profession and education as an institution evolved into its current form. Educational foundations explain how education has increasingly come to be used by the state to meet its social and policy needs, how education came to be viewed as a common good, and the role of accountability in shaping teacher education curriculum. These represent not only historical/philosophical origins, but our current identity, and are the central points of debates regarding the future of education. The final section will focus on how foundations are vital to understanding the timeless questions education continues to address, such as making education culturally relevant while maintaining a common curricular core, the meaning of how one lives a good life, and education for citizenship and social responsibility. While the context of education has changed considerably over the last several thousand years, educators continue to struggle with these issues which are grounded in the human condition. The preparation of our teachers ought to include a renewed emphasis on these foundational matters.
