From 'teacher as decision maker' to teacher as participant in 'shared decision making': reframing the purpose of social foundations in teacher education

An effective method of reframing the purpose of social foundations in teacher education, is to invoke the idea of shared decision making. Shared decision making includes the concepts of site-based management, school restructuring and school-based decision making. Shared decision making helps bridge the gap between the idea of teachers as decision makers, and the moral, civic and social policy content of foundational studies. Empirical case studies point out that in order to describe the purpose of social foundations, the skill to identify and analyze the values at stake in educational issues is imperative.