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Minnesota teacher education proposal causing a stir
The Teacher Education Redesign Initiative at the University of Minnesota has been raising some hackles recently, with concerns that some of the proposed changes could compromise students' freedom of expression. Thus reports yesterday's Chronicle of Higher Education, which describes the Initiative's "Race, Culture, Class and Gender" task group report and its emphasis on promoting certain "dispositions" among future students--several of which carry distinct ideological overtones.
A number of observers have expressed concern that these proposals, if enacted, could curtail students' academic freedom and even force some students to abandon teacher training entirely. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education in particular has outlined the proposal's legal implications with regard to free speech in a letter to U of M president Robert Bruininks. Over at Minding the Campus, Professor KC Johnson has invaluable commentary on the program and its consequences for the academic integrity of the teacher education program.
Sadly, there is precedent for a university attempting to wield this sort of heavy-handed approach in advancing an ideological agenda. As ACTA documented in its trustee guide Trouble in the Dorms, the University of Delaware featured a residential life program that employed coercive measures to get students to achieve narrow "learning outcomes"--and paid a price with student complaints and negative publicity. The University of Minnesota--and particularly its Board of Regents, which is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the university abides by the First Amendment--needs to take a close look at the trajectory of its teacher training restructuring before such a fiasco can be allowed to happen.
Posted by Sandra Diaz on December 03, 2009 at December 3, 2009 10:03 AM
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