I am opposed to the Virginia Department of Education’s proposal to eliminate the title of Foundations of Education from one of the professional studies requirements in the teacher licensure regulations and rename the requirement “The Teaching Profession.” While this may seem like a trivial change, I believe that it is actually a very significant and detrimental change.  Foundations of Education has been a requirement in Virginia for at least the last 30 years and the content of such courses is still called for, even in the proposed regulation change.  In the proposed regulation change, the title of the course changes from Foundations of Education to The Teaching Profession, yet the content of the course remains essentially the same.  The proposed regulation appears below:

·        5. The teaching profession. Skills in this area shall be designed to develop an understanding of the historical, philosophical, and sociological foundations underlying the role, development and organization of public education in the United States. Attention must be given to the legal status of teachers and students, including federal and state laws and regulations, school as an organization/culture, and contemporary issues and current trends in education, including the impact of technology on education. Local, state, and federal governance of schools, including the roles of teachers and schools in communities must be included. Professionalism and ethical standards, as well as personal integrity must be addressed. Knowledge and understanding of Virginia’s Guidelines for Uniform Performance Standards and Evaluation Criteria for Teachers must be included.

The Foundations of Education field deals directly with teaching students not only the historical, philosophical, and sociological Foundations of education, but also with what it means to be anethical professional of education who has examined issues of personal integrity, especially as related to how one successfully remains in the teaching field and how one equitably serves and understands our increasingly diverse student population (the field of multicultural education is a sub-field of the Foundations of Education). In essence, the Foundations of Education courses around the state are already doing what the new regulations seem to want, thus why change the name