Robert E. Floden, university distinguished professor and dean emeritus of the College of Education, has been named the honoree for the 2022 AACTE David G. Imig Award for Distinguished Achievement in Teacher Education.

Presented by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the recognition honors an individual for their exemplary career achievement in “formulation, implementation or analysis of teacher education policy, or the performance of distinguished scholarship in educator preparation.” The award will be formally presented at the organization’s 2022 annual conference in March. 

“I am deeply honored to be selected for this award,” said Floden. “Of course, I was only able to make contributions to teacher education by working with the wonderful faculty, students and staff here at Michigan State University, and by collaborating with colleagues across the country and around the world.” 

AACTE is the nation’s leading educator preparation organization and represents more than 800 higher education institutions.

Floden was named AACTE’s Board of Directors Chair in February 2021 for a one-year term, and had previously served as an at-large board member since 2017. He also helped lead the editorial team of the Journal of Teacher Education, the AACTE journal, when MSU was selected as its editorial host in 2015.

The honor is another in a long series of accolades for Floden’s impressive career at MSU, which includes being named as a fellow and recently serving as secretary-treasurer of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the American Educational Research Association.  

His numerous contributions to teacher education include serving as a leader on projects such as Teachers for a New Era, a $5.5 million initiative funded by the Carnegie Corporation, the Annenberg Foundation and the Ford Foundation to establish nationally recognized “exemplars” of outstanding teacher preparation. MSU was one of 11 institutions part of the project, which lasted from 2002-07. More recently, Floden was on the Strategic Advisory Group for 100Kin10, which began in 2011 in an effort to bring 100,000 science, technology, engineering and mathematics teachers into schools over the next decade. In Nov. 2021, 100Kin10 announced they “not only met but surpassed that goal.”  

After 45 years of service to MSU and to improving teacher education across the nation, Floden will retire in June 2022.  

“From his early involvement in national research centers and through his upcoming retirement, Bob Floden’s work as a scholar of teacher education has brought great distinction to Michigan State University,” said Ann E. Austin, interim dean of the College of Education. “We are incredibly proud of the ways Bob’s scholarship and leadership has helped to define the field of research on teacher education, shaped policy on a national and international level and influenced multiple generations of scholars who share his commitment to improving the teaching practice.”