Teach for America and Alternative Routes to Teaching: What are the Debates?

Catalog description

Teach for America (TFA), a very popular alternative route to teaching, began in 1990 and has ignited a flood of debates and conversations on topics such as who should teach and what knowledge is needed to teach. The program has had a dramatic influence on teacher education, from popularizing and securing the hold of alternative routes to education, to breeding leaders who have developed charter school consortiums and have impacted educational policy. The popularity of TFA helped to generate a variety of alternative routes to teach in the US including the New York City Teaching Fellows, Troops to Teachers, Teach for All, and the Georgia Alternative Preparation Program. TFA has spawned Teach For All, a similar program in countries all over the world. This course will introduce students to the landscape of issues around TFA, alternative credentialing, and public education, both in the US and globally.