ABSTRACT
Research and scholarly productivity in schools of education is reputed to be viewed as somewhat suspect by the university academic community. A recent study of forty-two schools of education which involved a series of questionnaires, interviews and on-site visits with administrators, faculty, students and alumni indicates that certain program areas closely resemble other social science departments with prodigious faculty productivity, rigorous program requirements, and extensive student research activities. Some program areas, however, such as teacher education do not exhibit these characteristics. Results reveal that the differences between teacher education programs and other program areas reflect more on the organizational structure of the schools of education and the university communities in which they are located than on the goals and behaviors of faculty members who work in this area.
To understand the current problems of teacher education, one needs to examine the past and present institutional context in which teacher education departments were created and exist. This chapter briefly reviews the history of teacher education in research universities, traces some of the problems that have plagued teacher education departments since their establishment in schools of education, and links present concerns of low prestige, power and research productivity among teacher educators to the institutions in which they work.
