Citizen/Blog #1

Title: “From Rethinking to Reacting: A Call for a Resistance Revolution in Teacher Education From Rethinking to Reacting A Call for a Resistance Revolution in Teacher Education- Beginning the Fall Semester, 2007 “

Summary: “Four Arrows” finds current philosophies in teacher schools passive and wishes to revamp this drastically by implementing social justice in his teaching classrooms and openly opposing NCATE, the accrediting agency that his college is currently seek accreditation with.

Topic: Accrediting all schools of education

Category: Citizen, Stakeholder/Blog

What is it? An academic blog posted by an education professor.

Publication Information: Wikipedia, Jan. 28, 2007

Author: Don Trent Jacobs, pen name: Four Arrows

Location: http://wiki.henryfarrell.net/wiki/index.php/Blog_Left

Accessed: Mar. 15, 2009

Support:

Northern Arizona University, College of Education, where Professor Don Trent Jacobs current teaches
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), widely-used accrediting agency
No Child Left Behind Act, imposed in 2001 to give all students an equal education

Jacobs opposes the practices of NCATE and the NCLB act for their restriction on teacher education. In his blog he declares outright

Audience and Agenda: Don Trent Jacobs is calling all other teacher colleges to implement his revolution against NCATE, NCLB, and all passive practices of teacher education that lay down and let the teaching quality dwindle without actively administering their mission statements and applying their change philosophies in the classroom. Jacobs is the author of six books and was formerly the dean of education at Oglala Lakota College. He claims to have multiple blogs posting this message. This particular blog is categorized as an academic blog and has nearly 2,000 hits.

Usefulness: Although Jacobs is very extreme in his plans for opposing the current education system and NCATE, he does have a different approach to the classroom that shows passion active teaching. The methodology in which he would choose to run education schools does not conform to NCATE and therefore, if Northern Arizona University were to acheive accreditation by NCATE, he would be prohibited from teaching as such. The greater picture is that despite the fact that Jacobs is using the mission of his university to shape his teachings, the accrediting body is what ultimately dictates his practices based on its singular model, rather than the views of the teacher college itself.

Works Cited: