Richard Neumann

Bio: Richard Neumann is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Higher education & Area studies. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 29 citations.

Social Foundations and Multicultural Education Course Requirements in Teacher Preparation Programs in the United States

Abstract: Teacher quality has been a central issue in discourse on improvement of schooling outcomes. While the importance of teacher quality is widely acknowledged, there is considerable dispute regarding necessary skills, knowledge, and dispositions of a highly qualified teacher, as well as the methods for producing such teachers. Indeed, even the definition of teacher effectiveness is contested. One area of teacher preparation that has been marginalized in the debate on teacher quality is the social foundations of education (SFE), a critical, interdisciplinary area of study that examines education and schooling through lenses of history, philosophy, and the social sciences (Tozar & Miretsky, 2000). In recent years, and particularly since the onset of the new century, the value of skills, knowledge, and dispositions promoted in teacher preparation SFE courses and the subsumed or related knowledge domain of multicultural education (ME), have been largely ignored in policy documents on teacher quality. Whether disregard of these knowledge and skill areas has had or will have an impact on course requirements in this domain in teacher preparation programs is an important question that should be of interest to those who value the content and goals of SFE/ME. Although limitations of extant data preclude comparison of current course requirements in SFE/ME with those in teacher education programs of the past, establishment of a benchmark on course requirements in this area will help clarify the status of SFE/ME in the field and enable future assessments of trends. This study examined the question of course requirements in SFE and ME in university-based teacher preparation programs in the United States that lead to an initial credential. Context Teacher education has long been under siege from many quarters. As David F. Labaree (2004) explains, schools of education are commonly perceived as low-status members of the university academic community, where many professors outside the field regard the discipline as intellectually impoverished. Teachers and teaching-credential candidates often complain of onerous assignments and too much attention to theory in education courses, which they perceive to have little practical value to their work in the real world of schools and classrooms. Policymakers frequently identify teacher education programs as a fundamental cause of bad teaching and poor schooling outcomes. These criticism and others contributed to the assault on teacher education in the 1990s (Kramer, 1991; Sowell, 1993; Hirsch, 1996), which even included a harsh attack from within by deans of university-based education schools (Holmes Group, 1995). As assessment of public school effectiveness became increasingly tied to standardized test scores in the 21st century and a mandate for "highly qualified teachers" in the No Child Left Behind Act focused attention on the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement, the critique of teacher education sharpened its focus on value-added measures of student achievement. The question of which specific elements of teacher preparation produce the greatest student achievement gains became central. At the same time, a downturn in the economy resurrected educational crisis rhetoric of the early 1980s and an economic rationale for reforming teacher preparation began to appear in government reports and other policy documents on the subject--saving a nation at risk of losing its economic competitiveness. Secretary of Education Rodney Paige (United States Department of Education, 2002) entered the fray with his first report to Congress on teacher quality, wherein he asserted, "there is little evidence that education school coursework leads to improved student achievement" (p. 19). According to Paige much of teacher education is unnecessary. The data show that many states mandate a shocking number of education courses to qualify for certification. …

From the contribution to the action approach: White teachers' experiences influencing the development of multicultural science curricula

Abstract: In this exploratory case study, we sought to understand teacher's integration of multicultural curricula in science curriculum units, and how personal experiences influenced the level of integration in light of Bank's typology of ethnic content integration into school curricula. Five research participants volunteered and were selected so as to be representative of the demographic of pre-service and in-service teachers in the southern United States. The aim was to explore teachers' personal experiences with cultural others that either facilitated or impeded their adoption of multicultural curricula strategies in science curricula units. Case narratives present and discuss interview data and assigned curricula projects. Findings suggest that participants who had transformative cultural experiences and who identified as the marginalized cultural other, transformed science curricula at higher levels of Bank's typology for curricula' multicultural approaches. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 1271–1295, 2012

The Gendered and Heterosexist Evolution of the Teacher Exemplar in the United States: Equity Implications for LGBTQ and Gender Nonconforming Teachers.

Abstract: Challenges confront lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender public school teachers or those who are perceived as such or who desire to be open about their sexual orientations or gender identities or expression. Teachers who do not conform to gender and sexual orientation norms currently are and historically have been the subject of persecution, urban myths, and general hysteria—part of bigger efforts to normalize heterosexuality and cisgender-ness through the development of a distinctive “exemplar” related to who teachers should be. We examine the related historical and legal context of gender and sexuality in schools and then offer suggestions regarding how to redress the lingering impacts of gender- and heteronormativity.

Troubling Methods-Centric “Teacher Production”: Social Foundations in Dance Education Teacher Preparation

Abstract: Preparing dance specialist teachers to successfully educate an increasingly diverse student population highlights a number of challenges within an educational policy landscape characterized by technical production, methods-centric teacher preparation, teacher-proof curriculum, and standardization. The ramifications of these policies have significantly narrowed the scope of teacher preparation and stripped curricula of educational foundations content. This article presents a praxis-incorporative approach for integrating social foundations content into dance teacher preparation based on a review of relevant national standards. Recommendations and insights, grounded in research findings from an undergraduate dance pedagogy course (n = 59) taught from critical and feminist pedagogical perspectives, are discussed.

Exploring the Affordances of Role in the Online History Education Project "Place Out of Time:" A Narrative Analysis

Abstract: ii Acknowledgements vi Preface xiv Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Review of History Education Literature 12 Chapter 3: Review of Place Out of Time Literature 43 Chapter 4: Review of Games and Roleplay Literature 92 Chapter 5: Methodology 125 Chapter 6: Case History One: Albus Dumbledore 161 Chapter 7: Case History Two: Diego Rivera 195 Chapter 8: Case History Three: Langston Hughes 238 Chapter 9: Case History Four: The Jesus Controversy 258 Chapter 10: Conclusions and Future Research 316 References 330 Appendices 364

The History of Initial Teacher Preparation in International Contexts

Abstract: This chapter examines the history of teacher education in five nations – South Africa, Singapore, Chile, Finland, and United States – representing different continents, histories, political structures, cultures, levels of wealth, and economies. The nations were selected, in fact, because of this variability; Table 2.1 shows how widely they differ on a number of indicators. We hope the chapter will generate discussions about the role teacher education has played in national development and what teacher educators in different nations might learn from each other.