Lois Weiner educator, author, and researcher writes:
The postings on the blog are on target, from what I know as a researcher who spends a great deal of time in urban schools.
But an important aspect of the TFA story is missing, which is the international aspect.
Briefly, TFA is the US embodiment of a phenomenon that’s being carried all over the world, virtually eliminating teacher education except for those people who will teach in schools serving children of the wealthy and powerful. Though it sounds like a conspiracy, it’s not, because the reasons for replacing career teachers with “fast track” candidates who have little or no preparation to teach were spelled out in World Bank documents at least ten years ago. The plans were imposed on developing countries as the political price for receiving loans and aid. So all over the world we see TFA equivalents. In El Salvador it’s a World Bank project called EDUCO that puts less educated teachers into rural schools. The World Bank cites Benin as a fine example of how a government can bring down the cost of teacher salaries: Fire teachers (civil service employees) when they ask for a salary increase, place an ad in the paper, and hire the folks who show up although they have no preparation to teach. All over the world, teachers and researchers tell the same story, which I document in my new book – see www.teachersolidarity.com
What is most shameful is that politicians (in the US, both Democrats and Republicans) who say they want to improve education for all kids enact policies that put ill-prepared teachers into schools that have the worst conditions. They admit when pressed that teachers with little preparation will follow the scripted curricula that are geared to standardized tests and achievement of minimal skills. Yet, as Ken Zeichner argues in his chapter in my book, these politicians send THEIR kids to schools that have teachers who are experienced and well-supported.
So what are we going to do about this? We have stories in the book from teachers and teacher unions who have organized successful resistance. What the stories show is that the deskilling of teaching, which is what TFA represents, is not going to go away because it’s bad for kids. We have to get serious politically.
Lois Weiner is co-editor with Mary Compton of “The Global Assault on Teaching, Teachers, and Their Unions: Stories for Resistance,” published by Palgrave Macmillan in London and New York.
2 responses so far ↓
Is Teach For America Part of A Global Phenomenon? | The Chancellor's New Clothes // August 29, 2008 at 11:09 pm |
[...] Click here to read a post by Lois Weiner, educator, author and researcher. [...]
TFA Alum // February 17, 2009 at 3:24 am |
This posting is actually quite accurate in its premise, and utterly devoid of accuracy in its conclusion. There is indeed an international movement towards a TFA model in teacher recruitment/selection, but it is in fact aimed at ensuring urban and rural students get access to the very top talent available. See http://www.teachforallnetwork.org/
The brutal reality is that all too often, rural (and many times urban) schools end up being staffed by ineffective teachers because they were the only ones willing to go there. The top talent ends up pursuing better-paid jobs in suburbs or the relatively few cities that pay their public school teachers a decent salary. It’s similar to the lack of top medical talent in developing nations that led to the creation of Doctors Without Borders.
One of the reasons TFA has been successful is admittedly one of the things that has made it a lightening rod for criticism: it has branded itself as “elite.” This in turn attracts those who see themselves that way – and who, after succeeding in a rigorous selection process, have proven themselves to be.
Far from ensuring low-income populations are taught by the mediocre, TFA and its international peers are working to ensure that our best and brightest are drawn to teaching in underserved communities. Even if they do not pursue teaching as a career, they will bring their awareness and understanding of the problems facing underserved schools wherever they do ultimately land. And if that happens to be at a major corporation with a large philanthropic division, would that really be a problem?