This study examines processes of change at a large education college during an era of change in teacher education in Israel. The research tools included protocols documenting college decision-makers' formal meetings and narrative interviews with twenty teacher educators, analyzed through qualitative content analysis. The results indicate the importance of the declared stories of decision-makers, who are influenced by external events and relate to critical changes at the college, and of the in-action stories of teacher educators, who operate within their own set of critical events. Their self-centered stories focus on personal and professional agendas, and partly reflect the declared story. 

This study examines processes of change at a large teacher education college during an era of change in teacher education in Israel and worldwide. The processes are examined on the level of college decision-makers (executive board members and department heads) and of teacher educators (academic faculty members).  The aim is to determine whether the two levels coincide and whether the faculty members, who are supposed to implement decision-makers' policy, actually change.

Theoretical framework

Teacher education today is at a crossroads, with different models coexisting worldwide. In striving for professionalism, academic teacher education institutions in Israel have developed their own educational worldview. Concurrently, in light of outside demands for reform and national priorities in Israel (Ben Peretz, 2001; E.L.A. Commission of the Forum for National Responsibility, 2003; The [Israeli] National Educational Plan, 2004), teacher education institutions must make changes in their agendas, both in structure (merger of existing institutions) and in curricula content.

Many believe that the challenges to teacher education necessitate new ways of thinking that are more appropriate to new developments in the job market, to increased access to information and computerized learning methods, to the needs and desires of the client (the student) and to competition on the international market for higher education (Adler et al., 2001).

Cochran-Smith (2005), claiming that teacher education cannot be isolated from the prevailing social, political and economic situation, views teacher education as a policy problem. Consequently, educational researchers are needed to determine positions and define directions, despite operating in an atmosphere of tension. In addition to the tension between professionalization and deregulation in teacher education, she identifies other points of tension: a) the problem of the gap between theory and practice (also discussed by Brouwer & Korthagen, 2005; Hiebert, Gallimore & Stigler, 2002); b) the tension between diversification and. selectivity of student teachers; c) the conflict between subject matter and pedagogy as the center of teacher education; d) the debate regarding the role of universities and colleges in teacher education (Guri-Rosenblitt, 2004); and e) the question of uniformity versus variety in training programs.

Most proposals for reform in teacher education (Calderhead, 2001; Delandshere & Petrosky, 2004) recommend compensating beginning teachers based upon excellence in teaching as well as providing professional support during their first two years of teaching. In addition, universities and colleges are encouraged to reexamine their teacher education programs and to focus on promoting excellence (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Gerstner, 2004; Zeichner & Conklin, 2005).

Teacher education in Israel today is indeed at a crossroads. On the one hand, every teacher education institution, in striving for professionalism, has developed its own educational worldview. On the other hand, in light of external demands for reform, such institutions must make changes in their agendas. To describe such changes at one teacher education college and determine whether they coincide with the teacher educator, we use a two-layer model: the declared story of the institution's decision-makers and the in-action story of the teacher educators.

Method

The study is a case study of one veteran secular college of education, located at the center of Israel. The college includes five educational departments and a continuing education unit, and grants B.Ed. and M.Ed. degrees. The Executive Academic Board meets weekly to determine college policy, and the Internal Academic Council meets eight times annually to discuss academic matters and approve new programs.

The research tools included: a) fully documented and transcribed protocols of Executive Academic Board and Internal Academic Council meetings, and internal published programs and reports; and b) narrative interviews with twenty teacher educators from different disciplines. The results were analyzed by content analysis, as is common in qualitative research (Cresswell, 1998).

Results

The changes at the college point to two stories: the declared story of college decision-makers who are affected by national and worldwide events and demands  as well as by internal, contextual changes, and the in-action story of teacher educators, who are self-centered, focused on their own personal and professional agendas, and partly affected by  the decision-makers' story.

The declared story of decision-makers is on the macro, institutional level and views the institution as a complex system. Curricular and conceptual changes are considered critical events: reducing the curriculum scope; instituting three-day-a-week programs and raising entrance requirements; focusing on preferred disciplines and dropping unpopular teaching disciplines; establishing new programs for first-year students, extra-curricular certificate programs, a special alternative interdepartmental program and new B.A. programs; developing and disseminating standards of quality teaching among the teaching faculty; making changes in the teaching-learning setting; establishing a partnership model with schools and considering a merger with other teacher education colleges.

The in-action story of the teacher educators revealed self-centered narratives, with a focus on personal and professional agendas. The critical events in these stories indicate that teacher educators prefer operating within their departments, seeking interdepartmental interactions for their own well-being as employees in the institution. They fail to see the complex, macro level of the institution as a whole, and are mainly interested in their own teaching welfare, ignoring critical changes in the institution and in teacher education. Yet they are still influenced by global changes when it comes to their personal academic development, such as research as a promotion vehicle and technological demands for change. They are aware of conceptual changes in teacher education as long as such changes coincide with their professional development, and they cherish professional growth within a community of learners.

Conclusions and Implications

The two stories in this one institution do not overlap. Nevertheless, effective approaches to managing change call for combining and balancing factors that do not apparently go together (Fullan, 2001). An interface between these stories may offer a powerful and compelling framework for effecting changes in education (Fullan, 2000), as there is a lack of empirical evidence regarding the one best model (Zeichner and Conklin, 2005). The gap between the stories within the same institution should be narrowed by means of policy dissemination and establishing communities of learners to create a safer space for teacher educators and to effect major changes within the college.