Editors' Introduction

[...]we ask ourselves once again as teacher educators, how can we continue to best prepare future teachers for the complexity that faces them as they work with students-locally, nationally, and in global contexts-utilizing a culturally and language diverse approach to general education classrooms as well as special needs students in inclusive settings? The authors are both from our Department of Learning and Teaching within the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at the University of San Diego. In "Critical, Project-Based Clinical Experiences as Sustainable 'Third Space' Reforms" Kristien Zenkov and Kristine E. Pytash-university faculty members working across college and school contexts in the U.S.-detail how teacher educators might address two challenges facing the teacher education field: (a) the long-standing critique of traditional teacher preparation in the United States as an isolated, questionably relevant ivory tower endeavor;and (b) the community and political concerns and tensions that teachers and students are facing outside of, and increasingly within, school. [...]aspects of professional practice that improve teaching and learning, for example, critical self-reflection, professional growth opportunities, collaborative relationships, and self-care, can quickly fall to the wayside as teachers are asked to take on new responsibilities related to managing COVID-19, increasing social emotional learning in light of the many challenges student are currently facing, and reacting to the current political climate pitting social and racial justice against traditional curriculum choices.

Editors' Introduction

Medina's summary article offers continued probes into who should be allowed to teach our nation's children and our most enduring priorities of attracting, preparing, cultivating, and retaining teachers. [...]utilizing the s submitted by the authors, descriptions of the four articles offer different perspectives from multiple settings. [...]these findings have implications for special education teacher preparation for edTPA and therefore future research is proposed. In closing, we quote from Dr. Medina's response article in this ussue that summarizes our current state of teacher education: "In these times we are living and teaching (eg., school closures, global pandemic, racial injustice, environmental collapse, etc.), our most enduring priority continues to be about attracting, preparing, cultivating, and retaining teachers appropriately.

Envisioning Teacher Education

This Spring 2021 issue of Teacher Education Quarterly comes to you at a most unique time in educational history. The COVID pandemic has been abated by a vaccine program that has allowed schools to begin to return to in-person learning after a year of remote learning. As a result of the pandemic, educators have become more aware and been witness to educational inequities in our K-12 school system. We have students who must learn from home, yet, they do not have access to the Internet. Some of our learners are experiencing food scarcity without access to the free and reduced school lunch programs. Students have had their home lives and environments exposed, including the necessity of sharing technology devices across siblings-with at the same time, some abusive living conditions, and parents who are not qualified or are unwilling to assist with schoolwork or may not be fluent in English.

Editors' Introduction

Institutions with teacher educator preparation programs with teacher candidates whose clinical experience were impacted by COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 had to collaborate with school districts, schools, and cooperating teachers to be able to continue the clinical school placements. Teacher preparation programs had to adjust to alternative model plan(s) including instructional methods, technologies, tools used to ensure that the teacher candidates developed the expected knowledge, skills, and dispositions required of teacher candidates. Teacher education programs need to ensure that teachers who are committed to social justice in K-12 classrooms have curriculum and administrators that support that commitment. The first article, "Fighting on All Fronts: The Push, Pull, and Persistence of Social Justice Educators and the Move to Reimagine Teacher Preparation" by Oscar Navarro, Jennifer K. Shah, Carolina Valdez, Alison G. Dover, and Nick Henning is based on a study that emerged from a broader book project examining approaches to teaching social studies for social justice in K-12 classrooms.