Reconstituting Teacher Education: Toward Wholeness in an Era of Monumental Challenges

Speaking to the political and social upheaval of our present moment, and drawing on discourses of democratic education, we argue that the U.S.'s racial reckoning propelled by recent events constitutes a sort of "founding" for our democracy and that this founding has important implications for reconfiguring citizenship within institutions and practices of teacher education. In building this argument, we articulate the aims of teacher education in a democracy and expand upon political scientist Danielle Allen's theoretical concepts of "sacrifice," "reconstitution," and "wholeness," demonstrating their urgent utility within our "thinning" democracy (Hess & McAvoy, 2015). We then draw on relevant literature to examine how teacher education fits into this larger political landscape, and we identify three monumental challenges within the field. Finally, we offer a way forward for teacher education, one grounded in democratic principles and centered on Allen's conceptualization of wholeness.