June 2007

The Minnesota Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (MACTE) has as one of its primary goals collaboration with other education organizations and policy makers.  It is important to note that this is also a stated goal of the Board of Teaching.   During the past year MACTE has enacted this goal through collaborations with Education Minnesota; legislators; content specialty groups (e.g. special education, reading organizations, and social studies); the Minnesota Department of Education; Educator Licensing; the Board of Teaching staff; and the Board itself.  MACTE members have worked to be partners in the true sense of the term both within our organization working across institutional types and with other organizations – offering our expertise as we were able, listening to other perspectives, modifying positions to ensure that the partnership worked well.

As we move further into the 21st century, we find more and more leaders acknowledging the importance of social and intellectual capital.  Daniel Pink in his book, A Whole New Mind has stated, “People who hope to thrive in the Conceptual Age must understand the connections between diverse and seemingly separate disciplines.  They must know how to see the big picture, cross boundaries, and be able to combine disparate pieces into an arresting new whole.” And Gary Marx in Sixteen Trends and Their Profound Impact on the Future states, “The basic idea of social capital is that networks have value…for transmitting information…for undergirding cooperation and reciprocity.  Limit the circle, and you narrow the range of ideas that will refresh the organization.  Broaden it, and intellectual wealth blossoms, paving the way for creating a future”.  We agree that it is critical, at the very heart of a well-educated person, to hear and consider issues from multiple perspectives.

This work is generally not easy, in fact it is difficult to reassess what each of us individually and collectively hold as truth or as important, but to be true to our goal of collaboration we must go beyond what we know to allow a real examination of other perspectives.  The business of education is about social and intellectual capital, and inherent in that is building, tending, and expanding relationships.  We will work to model that process in working together with you over the next year.

MACTE wishes to extend a warm welcome to the new members of the Board of Teaching, to be your partners in the preparation of teachers for Minnesota students, and to continue in our dialogue to be sure all voices and perspectives are considered in this important work.  Just as your membership has changed, so too has ours – on our Executive Committee we have some continuing members, and also some new ones.  Maureen Prenn from Minnesota State University Mankato is our new president.  You will be seeing and hearing from other members of our Executive Committee as well as other members of MACTE at each of your meetings.  We look forward to expanding these relationships.