Teacher Education in Pennsylvania Eisenmann Notes

Eisenmann, L. (1990). The influence of bureaucracy and markets: Teacher education in Pennsylvania. In J. I. Goodlad, R. Soder, & K. A. Sirotnik (Eds.), Places where teachers are taught (pp. 287-329). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

·      "Colleges were local creations, founded by various groups for various reasons, but nurtured through the continuing support of local communities. In addition, few aspects of any college's mission have been more locally tied than the training of teachers (p. 288)."

·      "Unlike most states, where the normal schools were planned, built, or administered by the state government, Pennsylvania allowed all of its normal schools to develop independently and did not move toward state ownership of these private institutions until the 1910s (p. 290)."

·      "Any student with a rudimentary command of common school material could present himself or herself at the school during any point in the term, and the professors would have to carve out time to place that student in a program (p. 293)."

·      1910s: PA normal schools became state owned and governed.

·      "The law (Edmonds Act of 1921) provided for the first time a guaranteed salary scale for all properly certified teachers, and it also required two years of course work beyond high school for any teacher to qualify for the new minimum salary. Current teachers were granted six years to meet this requirement, a provision that allowed them to retain their jobs while attending evening or summer school (p. 298)."

·      "Nonetheless, Penn State did, over time, acquire an image as an 'octopus,' reaching its arms into higher education programs at all levels and in all corners of the state (p. 305)."

·      "The use of a state perspective on this history can clarify ways in which local, regional, and statewide market forces have affected both institutions' curricular planning and their claims on student populations (p. 309)."

·      Predominately  women enrolled in PA normal schools for teacher preparation. Indicates trend of women in teaching.

·      Normal schools created occupational opportunities for women.

·      The lack of bureaucratic control enabled teacher education in PA to be open to and influenced by competition in the free market system.