1. Teacher Educator Ensuring a Revised Quality Profile of the Teacher Workforce: Reflective Practitioner, Meaning Maker-Cultural Worker, Change Agent, Leader and Advocate for Youth in a Culture of Inquiry Ruth J. Palmer, Associate Professor, The College of New Jersey Abstract Over the past decades, teacher quality emerged as a key policy lever to narrow achievement gaps that exist along racial and economic lines. Schools of Education were targeted as the primary contributors to the problem and teachers were vilified as the primary cause of problems with their non-successful students. Today however, teacher educators with teachers have initiated a paradigm shift to ensure a revised quality profile of the teacher workforce. This poster outlines the emerging curriculum efforts of teacher educators to establish a culture of inquiry in their undergraduate programs, and of their students to reconstruct their professional identity as leaders, learners, meaning makers and change agents. Together they are authoring a new quality profile for teachers. A.Research Skill Development: Closed > Open Inquiry  faculty/student specified  Highly structured/ less structure  Collaborative teams, dyads, triads  Library Support  Writing Instruction B.Course Embedded - Applied Research  Case Study  Interpretative Inquiry  Self-Study  Ethnography  Capstone Outcome: Cultivation of research skills, and competencies ; Reconstruction of identity as teacher -researcher C.Structural Changes – Field Experiences  Practicum:  Tutoring in Schools  Teacher Observations  Research Apprenticeship Outcomes: Early entry into the practice of teaching, and the study of teaching. Identity construction as team members in the outcomes of teaching and Learning D.Institutional Initiatives Faculty-Student Collaboration on Scholarly & Creative Activity Celebration of Student Achievement Mentored Undergraduate Summer Experiences Mentoring Outcome: With more rigorous engagement in the scholarly experiences, pre-service teachers are now confident in self, and able to pursue their professional choice optimistically and as participants Part 2. Student-led Initiatives & Change - Agency A.Student Using Course Options – Shaping own learning Experiences Independent Studies Participation in Local Conferences Student Leadership and Advocacy- The Secondary Education Teachers Association B. Self Advocacy -  Using Student Clubs to merge academic and social life  Student Clubs now introducing Committees to advocate for student research  Working for program change e.g. Students use data to argue for the establishment of the Secondary Education Dual Major  Advocacy for Children and Youth  Students extending their practica to serve in Middle Level Education C. Student initiated Research Collaborative Inquiry with Cooperating Teachers Peer Mentoring Students as Junior Collaborators on Faculty Research K-12 Outreach School of Education Research Laboratory Outcome: The curriculum changes enable change in student engagement, identity construction and clearer self definition as agents of change and educational activists Part 1 Curriculum Changes – Faculty-led Initiatives A.Critical Reflection. Reflection becomes critical when it has two distinctive purposes:  To understand how considerations of power undergird, frame and distort educational processes and interactions: Illumination of Power  To question assumptions and practices that seem to make our teaching lives easier but actually work against our own best long-term interest: Recognition of Hegemonic Assumptions Outcome: The Critically reflective Teacher (a)activates her classroom by providing a model of passionate skepticism and (b) can stand outside their practice and see what they do in a wider perspective.