65 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 A. Montgomery, I. Kehoe (eds.), Reimagining the Purpose of Schools and Educational Organisations, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-24699-4_6 Positioning Students as Teacher Educators: Preparing Learners to Transform Schools Alison Cook-Sather and Heather Curl Abstract This chapter considers the potential role teacher education programs— specifically those that draw on student input and insight—can play in school trans- formation. Three distinct areas are considered: (1) developing the capacity among new teachers entering schools to learn with students to consistently improve prac- tice; (2) supporting the empowerment of high school students who, positioned as teacher educators, develop confidence and take ownership over their own learning and (3) fostering strong student-teacher relationships among those participating in the project. Each of these areas has the potential to improve and transform schools. The multiple barriers that exist to fostering student empowered change—and the collaboration between school and university this kind of program entails—are also considered. Keywords Student perspectives • Student voice • Student-teacher relationships • Teacher education • Ecology of teaching • School transformation Introduction: Teacher Education Programs as Liminal Spaces While many efforts to re-imagine schools are framed within the context of schools themselves, teacher education programs can provide another context and opportu- nity for secondary students to contribute to school transformation. Straddling the colleges and universities in which they are based and the schools that provide the “practice” contexts for prospective teachers, teacher preparation programs can be understood as liminal spaces for both prospective teachers and others who enter those spaces with them (Cook-Sather 2006a). A liminal space, Turner (1995) argued, is “a realm of pure possibility whence novel configurations of ideas and relations may arise” (p. 97). This chapter focuses on the novel configuration of ideas and relations that can arise when secondary students are positioned as teacher edu- cators within a college-based teacher education program. Specifically, it focuses on A. Cook-Sather (*) • H. Curl Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA, USA e-mail: acooksat@brynmawr.edu; hcurl@brynmawr.edu