Global Voices and Global Visions: Education for Excellence, Understanding, Peace and Sustainability by Gunzelmann Betsy

Author:Gunzelmann, Betsy [Gunzelmann, Betsy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Education
Published: 2014-01-11T05:00:00+00:00

Certification and Basic Requirements of Teachers: Basic certification of teachers is present in almost every country interviewed. Again it is the soaring countries that stand out in their policies. In Finland no alternative routes to certifications are allowed. Teachers must go through the process that prepares all teachers to become certified.

Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States all require teachers to be licensed or certified, with varying amount of postsecondary education. Thailand requires the most with five years, the United States, four years at both the elementary and secondary levels, although some states now require a master’s degree or for the teacher to be working toward an advanced degree.

Beyond basic levels of education required, all of the systems have professional, or occupation-specific, requirements to enter teaching. The educational systems all have differences in the sequencing and organization of their professional preparation. One variation merges professional preparation and licensing within a bachelor’s degree program; hence, educational and professional preparations are completed concurrently. Another variation separates the two; the degree is completed first, with the professional preparation and certification subsequent to it.

In the United States, the latter is referred to as a “fifth-year program”—a post-baccalaureate one year teacher-preparation program leading to a teaching certificate. But only two systems—the United States and Hong Kong—have what is referred to as alternative certification routes into teaching, where candidates are not required to have completed professional preparation prior to employment, and where, for instance, the uncertified can begin teaching before or during their preparation and training.

All of the systems, with the exception of Hong Kong, require candidates to obtain a government issued certificate or license signifying that a candidate has completed required professional preparation and training. Interestingly, in all systems the professional preparation requirements include both subject matter and pedagogical preparation—expertise in both the “what” and the “how” of teaching—is required.

In all of the systems, professional preparation includes a period of supervised practice or student teaching in the field prior to employment. As a result, in none of these systems do the rules stipulate that those with only a subject-matter degree (e.g., a degree in mathematics) are qualified to teach.

Also, all of the systems, with the exception of Hong Kong and Singapore, require some kind of exam or test for prospective teachers. In some systems, these tests are administered as part of a teacher-preparation program; in others, they are administered by the school upon employment.

On the issue of education requirements, a four-year bachelor’s or undergraduate degree is typically the reported standard for all of the systems (although we can see from the research and global voices that this is questionable in some areas). But the different systems vary both within and across as to the level and years of education required. (Statistical information is available through CPRE on the percentage of school teachers by highest degree earned, and by level of teaching certificate by system, by accessing http://www.cpre.org/images/stories/cpre_pdfs/sixnations_final.pdf.)

In Hong Kong, teachers can gain entry with the equivalent of a two-year, sub- or associate degree. In

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