THE TEACHER EDUCATION VILLAGE: GROWING PARTNERSHIPS TO INTEGRATE EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY INTO CURRICULA AND CLASSROOMS
In her book It Takes a Village Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote, “Children are not rugged individualists. They depend on the adults they know and on thousands more who make decisions every day that affect their well-being” (Clinton, 1996, p.7). Although Clinton is writing of raising children and the importance of family and community in this process, similar statements could be made about teacher preparation. “It takes a village” to produce educators qualified to meet the complexities of 21st century classrooms and many give explicit attention to collaboration among members of the “village” (Holmes Group, 1986; Goodlad, 1994; Sirotnik, 1999; Sirotnik & Goodlad, 1998). In fact, the U.S. Department of Education’s “Preparing tomorrow’s teachers to use technology” (PT3) program emphasized the use of partnerships to effectively promote technology integration in the daily practices of future teachers.
This article explains and analyzes a four-year, ongoing effort to facilitate effective uses of educational technologies in a large teacher preparation program via partnerships between the university and public schools and between colleges at the university. The research question – How can diverse partnerships related to technology integration facilitate effective uses of educational technologies within a “village” responsible for preparing prospective teachers? – is situated within our Teaching and Technology Initiative.