Clinically Based Teacher Education in Action, Volume X

The AACTE Clinical Practice Commission Proclamations and Cases of Teacher Education Innovation

Edited by:
Kristien Zenkov, George Mason University
Seth A. Parsons, George Mason University
Danielle V. Dennis, University of Rhode Island
Valeisha Ellis, Spelman College
Audra K. Parker, George Mason University
Rodrick S. Lucero, National Center for Clinical Practice in Educator Preparation

A volume in the series: Cases in Clinically Based Teacher Education. Editor(s): Eva Garin, Bowie State University. Rebecca West Burns, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.

Call for Chapter Proposals

Purpose and Scope:
While numerous professional association reports, policy proposals, scholars, and practitioners continue to call for a heightened focus on clinical experiences in preservice teacher education programs, the current shift toward this clinical experience emphasis was largely inspired by the 2010 NCATE publication, Transforming Teacher Education through Clinical Practice: A National Strategy to Prepare Effective Teachers. This high-profile report called for teacher education scholars and practitioners to “turn teacher preparation upside down” (NCATE, 2010), by recognizing that clinical experiences were central rather than secondary to effective educator preparation. A more recent seminal publication—the 2018 AACTE Clinical Practice Commission report, A Pivot Toward Clinical Practice, Its Lexicon, and the Renewal of Educator Preparation—amplified and extended this call for clinically-centered teacher education structures.

The Blue Ribbon Panel Report (NCATE, 2010) identified 10 “design principles” for clinically-based teacher preparation. These were echoed and extended by the AACTE Clinical Practice Commission report’s ten “proclamations,” addressing elements of clinical practice and the “renewal of educator preparation”:

1. Clinical practice is central to high-quality teacher preparation.

2. As pedagogy is the science of teaching, the intentional integration of pedagogical training into an educator preparation program is the cornerstone of effective clinical practice.

3. Clinical practice includes, supports, and complements the innovative and requisite skills, strategies, and tools that improve teacher preparation by using high-leverage practices as part of a commitment to continuous renewal for all learning sites.

4. Clinical partnerships are the foundation of highly effective clinical practice.

5. Sustainable and shared infrastructure is required for successful clinical partnerships.

6. Clinical partnerships are facilitated and supported through an understanding of the continuum of development and growth that typifies successful, mutually beneficial collaborations.

7. As emerging professionals, teacher candidates are essential contributors and collaborators within clinical programs and partnerships.

8. Boundary-spanners, school-based teacher educators, and university-based teacher educators play necessary, vital, and synergistic roles in clinical educator preparation.

9. Coalescing the language of teacher preparation and teaching around a common lexicon facilitates a shared understanding of and reference to the roles, responsibilities, and experiences essential to high-quality clinical preparation.

10. Teaching is a profession requiring specialized knowledge and preparation. Educators are the pedagogical and content experts. It is through the assertion and application of this expertise that they can inform the process and vision for renewing educator preparation.

Founded in 2019, the National Center for Clinical Practice in Educator Preparation (NCCPEP or “The Center”) has aimed to serve as a national leader in enacting these proclamations. The Center leadership consists of a team of school- and university-based teacher educators who are active in clinically-centered teacher education practice and research. The purpose of this book is to illustrate these implementation efforts, via examinations and descriptions of teacher education practices and programs that rely on the proclamations. A team of the Center’s directors will serve as editors of this volume, and each of the ten content chapters will address one of the proclamations.

Each of these chapters will be lead authored by one of the Center’s directors, and teacher education scholars and practitioners from across the United States who are engaged in the implementation of the relevant proclamation will serve as co-authors and craft 2-4 cases that illustrate their teacher education practices. The chapter’s lead author(s) would compose an introduction to the chapter, followed by a summary of the cases in that chapter. The lead author(s) for each chapter would also review cases to identify and comment on relevant themes and draft discussion questions.

Each case (a total of approximately 30 from across the ten proclamation chapters) will highlight the authors’ successful efforts to implement the proclamations and also describe the processes they followed to achieve these ends. Case authors will be required to describe the hurdles they encountered in the establishment of their clinical practice programs and the ways they navigated these obstacles. Decades of research on clinical practices and partnerships have revealed that there are numerous, often challenging, foundational, relational, and maintenance efforts required to develop and sustain these practices and collaborations. In short, the cases in this volume are not intended to be celebratory, but to honor the complex nature of enacting the AACTE proclamations.

All chapters will be evaluated for the quality and innovative nature of the ways in which they address the proclamations, and all chapters will be read by other chapters’ lead authors (and the volume’s editors) to ensure consistency in voice, format, and content. An introductory chapter (written by the text’s first editor) would summarize the history and development of the proclamations. A closing chapter (written by the text’s second editor) would propose revisions to the proclamations, based on an analysis of the volume’s chapters. A preface would be co-authored by other members of the editor team and/or a nationally-recognized clinical teacher education scholar.

We anticipate that readers will use this text as a resource guide for understanding the seminal CPC document and the core ideals of clinical practice that it details. Chapters will provide readers with discussion questions, intervention protocols, supporting documents, and field-based activities to which they might appeal with the constituents of their own teacher education programs, to move individuals and program efforts further along a continuum toward clinically-centered teacher preparation. Finally, these cases will call for considerations of local efforts that are attempting to enact these principles of clinically-focused teacher preparation—efforts that might also inform the revision of such ideals for our field.

Special Notes to Prospective Authors:
This text is designed to identify case examples of teacher education innovation that address at least one of the AACTE Clinical Practice Commission proclamations. Each case should be between 2,500 and 3,500 words (not including discussion questions, intervention protocols, supporting documents, field-based activities, and references), allowing for 3-4 cases per chapter. Each case must include tools that readers can use to implement elements of the innovations in their own contexts.

Preparation for Submission:
All submissions must be prepared using Microsoft Word for electronic submission and adhere to the guidelines set out in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th Edition. Text should be double spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font with any tables, figures, or visual images placed after the reference section. Please complete the submission form at the end of this call and email the entire submission to Kristien Zenkov at kzenkov@gmu.edu.

Projected Time-Line:
January 15, 2023 - Cases due to book editors
April 15, 2023 - Book editors send cases to authors for revisions
May 15, 2023 - Revisions due to book editors
June 30, 2023 - Final draft submitted to series editors
July 31, 2023 - Series editors write foreword and request revisions of book editors (if any)
August 31, 2023 - Revisions due to series editors
September 15, 2023 - Final manuscript submitted to publisher