Date of Award

2001

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

William F. Pinar

Abstract

This study describes Louisiana's 1999--2000 Blue Ribbon Commission on Teacher Quality, focusing primarily on Commission proceedings and the evolution of its recommendations within a context of standards-based teacher education reform history. Employing case study methodology contextualized in historical and ethnographic narrative, this nine month study examined policy recommendations for Louisiana's teacher education programs that resulted from Commission meetings. Aims of the study included describing the development of these recommendations, their relation to national teacher education reform movements, and their potential impact on university teacher preparation programs. The research provides not only documentation of Commission proceedings of some historical value, but also insights into reform implications for teacher education in Louisiana, as well as for the work of similar commissions in other states. Issues raised by professionalization and de-regulation movements within a historical and political standards-based context formed a backdrop to Commission proceedings and decisions. The study reveals Commission recommendations as reflective of both professionalization goals and deregulation attempts to remove "the profession" from professionalization. The juxtaposition of conflicting professionalization and de-regulation goals points to a blurring of the two movements as represented in the various Commission recommendations. This blurring is a critical finding of this study, for it illustrates increasing tensions between professionalization, a paradigm of thought of continued importance in the field of teacher education, and de-regulation, a movement characterized by increasing dominance in policy making arenas.

ISBN

9780493328355

Pages

363

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.337

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