Studying teacher preparation: The questions that drive research

This article argues that research on teacher preparation over the last 100 years can be understood in terms of the major questions that researchers examined. The analysis is guided by the framework of research as historically situated social practice, which emphasizes that researchers' interests, commitments, and social experiences guide the research questions they pursue and the theories and perspectives they adopt. Past research on initial teacher education is described in terms of the emergence of three broad questions: the curriculum question, the effectiveness question, and the knowledge question. Present research focuses on two broad animating questions: the policy question and the learning question. We recommend that future research address questions that link teacher learning with student learning and teacher candidates' beliefs and practices as well as questions that examine the relationships between research practices and social, economic and institutional power.