The Gevirtz Graduate School of Education will be holding the Teacher Education Research Symposium on Tuesday, February 19 at 2 pm in ED 4205. This symposium—which is free and open to the public—will consist of two lectures discussing current issues in teacher education policy and practice in the United States and in Japan.
A visiting team of researchers from Japan will present their study entitled, “Comparative Study of Standards-Based Reforms of Quality Assurance and Professional Development Support Systems for Teachers and School Leaders.” Their talk will analyze the current system for teacher preparation in Japan, and discuss how the country is considering making changes to their standards for teacher education programs. A more centralized governance of the licensing and training of teachers is being considered, and the researchers will argue why these changes should be implemented. The scholars that will be presenting are Jun Ushiwata from Sendai Shirayuri Women’s College, Naoki Sakurai from University of Aizu, Hiroki Koba from Daido University, and Orie Sasaki from University of Tokyo.
After the guests’ presentation, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education Associate Teaching Professor Tine Sloan will speak on the topic of American trends in teacher education policy. She will discuss the current teacher shortage in America, and the ways that different states are addressing this problem, whether it be recruitment incentives or alternative teacher pathways. She will also discuss the recognized need for recruiting and training more teachers of color, and analyze the research being conducted on that topic.
Following both presentations, the floor will be open to questions and discussion of the topics. A significant amount of time will be allotted for a more interactive discussion with the audience members.
Tine Sloan is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Education. She served as the Director of the Teacher Education Program, the program for prospective elementary, secondary, and special education teachers, for twelve years. She is currently the lead investigator for the California Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network (CTERIN), which is a research collaborative across nine UC campuses striving to understand and improve the preparation of teachers in California. She is actively involved in state policy issues on teacher preparation and represents the University of California as a Commissioner on the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Sloan also studies international contexts of teacher preparation, working closely will partners in multiple research and practice collaborations (these include colleagues from Denmark, Singapore, Switzerland, New Zealand, Taiwan, Japan, Finland, Norway and more).