Rural Teacher Preparation Programs In America

It is well known that the American's educational system is the most advanced in the world. However, the problem of low quality and inadequate quantity of rural teachers has always been a"bottleneck"in American education. It is especially true in rural areas. In order to solve this problem effectively, and to promote the development of rural education, some universities in the United States have carried out rural teacher preparation programs since 1970s. Through nearly 40 years of exploration, rural teacher preparation programs have made great progress, and accumulated a lot of valuable experience. Compared with America, the issue of the quality and quantity of rural teachers in China is more serious. It is also imminent to cultivate outstanding rural teachers for China. Therefore, it is significant to study on American rural teacher preparation programs. However, there is not in-depth study of American rural teacher preparation programs in China. So, this study takes American rural teacher preparation programs as the research subject and in order to make a comprehensive study of it. The purpose of this study is to analyze the background that rural teacher preparation programs puts forward, examine the current state of the programs. Based on that, to explore the characteristics, results achieved and challenges of rural teacher preparation programs.There are mainly four chapters to this paper:Chapter one:"The background of rural teacher preparation programs". This part analyzes the background that rural teacher preparation programs puts forward from the aspects of the particularity of the rural teaching environment, situation of rural teachers and requirements of the development of rural education.Chapter two:"The current status of rural teacher preparation programs". This part mainly examined the type, objectives, admission criteria, sources of fund, curriculum and implementing modes of rural teacher preparation programs.Chapter three:"Case study of rural teacher preparation programs". This part selected three typical cases of rural teacher preparation programs. These cases represent three different modes of the programs. Then this part makes case study on rural teacher preparation programs from the aspects of participation mechanism, objectives, target students, admission criteria, curriculum and length of schooling.Chapter four:"Characteristics, achievements and challenges of rural teacher preparation programs."On the foundation of Chapter Two and Chapter Three, this part firstly summarizes the characteristics of rural teacher preparation programs. Then this part analyzes the achievements of these programs. Finally, this part discusses the potential problems of these programs.Chapter five:"Enlightenment and reference."This part firstly reflects the current situation of rural teacher education in our country, and points out the problems of it. Secondly, it gives some suggestions on reform in the future.