The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) has announced that Robert E. Floden, dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University, is the new chair of its Board of Directors.
AACTE is the nation’s leading organization on educator preparation, with more than 800 member institutions.
Floden has served as an at-large member of the board since 2017. During his one-year term as chair, he will help implement the association’s strategic goals, incorporating lessons learned from the pandemic to advance educator preparation and policies, and growing AACTE’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“Our key priority now is clearly recovering from the pandemic. Face-to-face instruction is an important part of education. We can draw upon what we have learned about the ways in which we make good use of remote instruction and other important lessons,” said Floden, a University Distinguished Professor at MSU.
“I think teacher education programs in general made the pivot well, although it was challenging in the first months. But we learned how to continue to provide solid preparation for educators, and I think we can harvest what we have learned and use that as we move forward in the fall of 2021.”
Floden is recognized as a pre-eminent scholar in the areas of teaching, teacher education, and linking policy to classroom practice. He has helmed various editorial boards, including the Journal of Teacher Education. He also has been elected to and currently serves in several national leadership capacities, including secretary-treasurer of the National Academy of Education. Read more about his career.
Learn more about Floden’s vision as AACTE Board Chair in this video blog. For more information, visit www.aacte.org.