ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how teacher education programs have or have not attended to notions of culture in preparing teachers to teach in K-12 educational settings. The authors begin by exploring differences in traditional and alternative certification programs in our two-tiered system of teacher education and discuss how culture has been treated in these two teacher education programs. The final section of the chapter provides a discussion of how understanding cultural practices might be included more effectively in teacher education programs moving forward and provides tangible examples of how culture, critical reflection, and generative learning can be integrated in the life of teacher education programs. These examples provide insights into how these concepts come to life in the structures, pedagogies, and practices of teacher education programs through concrete examples that illustrate how the inclusion of these concepts can lead to transformative praxis.
