James Conant's Uncompleted Revolution: Methods Faculty and the Historical Profession, 1978-2004

Abstract

WHEN JAMES CONANT, former president of Harvard University, took on the topic of teacher preparation in his 1963 report The Education of American Teachers, he demanded sweeping change. Conant's reform agenda which focused on reshaping the educational establishment in America took on the National Education Association and National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. He sought to end the monopoly of colleges of education and locate more teacher preparation coursework in subject matter departments, such as history, in colleges of arts and sciences.' Conant insisted that teacher preparation was an "all university responsibility" with roles for an education faculty, psychology professors, college of arts and sciences departments, and "clinical" faculty members who specialized in training teachers. By "clinical" faculty he meant persons who had actual experience and expertise in school teaching and he asked that they be accorded a new status. Like clinical professors of medicine who were top practitioners, not