International teacher education is very topical. A recent article by Roberts (2007) in "Teacher Education Quarterly" concluded that teacher educators face difficulties in creating structures and activities and finding the time, energy, and financial resources to promote a deep level of understanding for world dilemmas and events. But what constitutes "a deep level of understanding for world dilemmas and events" for students of international teacher education, and how is its attainment as a learning outcome "dependent on the vision of associated faculty"? This article attempts to grapple with this question. Starting from an historical characterization of three periods of teacher education research and policy in North America over the last 60 years, the author shows how faculty vision of international teacher education has been influenced by different and contrasting conceptions of internationalization as a result of the changing macro-political context surrounding teacher education. The author explores three different ways of conceptualizing internationalization: (1) classical liberal stance; (2) cosmopolitanism; and (3) postmodern trans-nationalism. His thesis is that the heavy neo-liberal emphasis on economics is denying teacher educators all the benefits of cultural and political globalization in international teacher education. (Contains 11 notes.)