1 Creating Teacher Community: Research and Practice in Language Teacher Education Martha H. Bigelow and Constance L. Walker The International Conference on Language Teacher Education Three times since 1999, the University of Minnesota has organized a small, carefully planned opportunity for language teacher educators to meet—the International Conference on Language Teacher Education. 1 It is special for many reasons; due to its size, it supports a great deal of exchange among participants, and it is focused, which generates in-depth conversation on issues that are most important to teacher educators. One of the main aims of the conference is to establish an ongoing interdisciplinary dialogue between scholars and practitioners who often work in very different academic departments and educational settings. For instance, conference attendees often come from departments of Education, Linguistics and Foreign or World Languages. They are teacher educators preparing teachers for many diverse settings, including: ESL/EFL; foreign/modern/world languages; bilingual; immersion; indigenous and minority languages; and less commonly taught languages. This conference is a unique opportunity to pool the expertise of educators with the common goal of deepening our knowledge of language teacher development. It is an exciting meeting to be a part of because it creates a forum for veterans and newcomers in the field to share ideas of practice and research in teacher education. Creating Teacher Community was an apt title for the conference of 2003 for a number of reasons. In 2003, there were 256 participants from 31 states and at least 12 countries. A large number of the attendees presented papers and there was much participation by graduate students, both in attendance and presenting. Many said that it was exhilarating to be among others who share similar questions, challenges and passions. The conference hosted papers and symposia on various critical issues in language teacher education, encompassing themes that addressed the following questions: What should language teachers know? How is language teacher education affected by formal and informal decision-making bodies? How do all members of the professional community join together to prepare teachers? How is the knowledge base conceptualized and operationalized in teacher preparation and development? The papers in this volume all originated as presentations at the conference. The selection process involved an editorial pre-selection of papers which were then sent out for blind review to a number of recognized teacher educators. These chapters, with roots in different instructional