The United States is facing a national teacher shortage, a workforce crisis in our schools. At the same time, the pressure on teachers is immense. They face challenges like supporting students with a wide variety of backgrounds and needs and navigating a highly charged political environment. They are vulnerable to attacks on how they approach history, race, LGBTQ rights and more in their classrooms. Celia Oyler, Vice Dean for Teacher Education at Teachers College, joins Teachers College President Thomas Bailey for a conversation about how to prepare teachers to enter today’s schools. And more broadly, they discuss the possible futures for teacher education at this moment, what Teachers College can do to lead efforts to move us forward, and what we all must do to fight for the schools we want for our children.

The oldest and largest graduate school of education, Teachers College is inspiring and motivating a new generation of leaders to pursue the solutions that will bring greater equity to the world across education, health and psychology.

To learn more about the Public Good Initiative at Teachers college and the work of our guests, access transcripts of this episode, and more, visit our website (tc.edu/pursuingthepublicgood).

Credits: Pursuing the Public Good is produced by The Office of the President, The Digital Futures Institute, and the Office of Institutional Advancement at Teachers College, Columbia University. This episode was edited by Jen Lee and Billy Collins. Audio recording by Moira McCavana. Producers Joe Riina-Ferrie and Amy Hawley Alvarez. Script writing by Robin Willig. Outreach by Morgan Gilbard and Jackie Teschon.

The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the speaker to whom they are attributed. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the faculty, administration, staff or Trustees either of Teachers College or of Columbia University.