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Teacher Professional Learning in an Age of Compliance
by Susan Groundwater-Smith Nicole MocklerTeacher Professional Learning in an Age of Compliance: Mind the Gap examines ways in which practice-based inquiry in educational settings, in a number of different countries and contexts, can transcend current ways of working and thinking such that authentic professional learning is the result. The authors contend that education policy, under pressure from a number of quarters, is retreating into a standardized, audited, and backward-looking arena, with the advances of more progressive educational philosophy being rolled back. In an age where practitioner inquiry and action research have often been 'hijacked' for the purposes of broad-based policy implementation, this book offers a rationale for reclaiming the critical edge so fundamental to inquiry-based professional learning. It examines the potential of inquiry-based forms of teacher professional learning to contribute to the growth of professional knowledge for and about teachers' work. The authors intend that the book will assist in building new forms of professional knowledge that go beyond the current compliance model - engineered from less enduring materials - to inform a new model with its foundations in a strong ethical and moral framework. They also believe that this new model, if implemented, will help to reverse today's conservative educational trends and make teacher professional development a force for genuine progress once again. They have consciously moved away from the celebratory tone of much of the academic reporting of teacher professional learning, adopting instead a genuinely critical edge. In covering a wide range of policies and practices from across the international spectrum, they have allowed themselves the freedom to engage in serious epistemological arguments about the nature of professional knowledge, as well as how it is constructed and employed.
Teacher Strategies: Explorations in the Sociology of the School (Routledge Library Editions: Education)
by Peter WoodsThis book takes as its focus the key interactionist concept of ‘strategy’, a concept fundamental to many current concerns in the sociology of the school, including the understanding of the links between society and the individual, a more accurate description of certain areas of school life and implications for the practice of teaching. ‘Strategy’ bears on all these issues. It concerns both goals, and ways of achieving them and short-term, immediate aims as well as long-term ones. The essays in this book share a common concern with teacher strategies, emphasizing the discovery of intentions and motives, alternative definitions of situations and the hidden rules that guide our behaviour. Amongst the areas investigated are the influence of factors outside the school in determining the role of the teacher, and the nature and influence of teacher commitment. The implications for practical action and policy making are stressed throughout, and by recognising and exploring the constraints and influences that operate on teachers, this work constructs a realistic appraisal of the teaching situation.
Teacher Training and the Education of Black Children: Bringing Color into Difference (Routledge Research in Education #110)
by Uvanney MaylorThis book is designed to challenge dominant educational discourses on the underachievement of Black children and to engender new understandings in initial teacher education (ITE) about Black children's education and achievement. Based in empirical case study work and theoretical insights drawn from Bourdieu, hooks, Freire, and Giroux, Maylor calls for Black children’s underachievement to be (re)theorised and (re)conceptualised within teacher education, and for students and teachers to become more "race"- and "difference"-minded in their practice.
Teacher in a Foreign Land
by Murat AlptekinFethullah Gülen is an enlightened person who knows well many issues related to literature, art, philosophy and science, he is a man of action who has not wasted his life, but struggled to serve humanity. He is tolerant of mankind and sensitive enough to cry when he sees an ant drown. He is a great person altruistic enough to say, "Regardless of where the fire falls, it burns my heart" instead of saying, "Fire burns where it falls." Since his childhood Fethullah Gulen has shown himself to be a unique person with his knowledge, morality and ideals. His life is full of service to others which he recommended and made in spite of the difficulties he endured for his people and all of humanity.
Teachers As Cultural Workers
by Paulo FreireIn Teachers as Cultural Workers, Freire speaks directly to teachers about the lessons learned from a lifetime of experience as an educator and social theorist. Freire's words challenge all who teach to reflect critically on the meaning of the act of teaching as well as the meaning of learning. He shows why a teacher's success depends on a permanent commitment to learning and training, as part of an ongoing appraisal of classroom practice. By opening themselves to recognition of the different roads students take in order to learn, teachers will become involved in a continual reconstruction of their own paths of curiosity, opening the doors to habits of learning that will benefit everyone in the classroom.In essays new to this edition, well-known and respected educators Peter McLaren, Joe Kincheloe, and Shirley Steinberg add their reflections on the relevance of Freire's work to the study and practice of education across the globe.
Teachers and Crisis: Urban School Reform and Teachers' Work Culture (Routledge Library Editions: Urban Education #1)
by Dennis CarlsonAdvocates of the ‘back-to-basics’ movement argue that a basic skills programme ensures that students are educated to a minimum level of literacy required to enter the labour force. Critics charge that these efforts only increase school bureaucracy and undermine teachers’ autonomy in the classroom. First published in 1992, this book moves beyond the rhetoric surrounding the basic skills debate by providing a thorough yet critical examination of urban education, urban school reform, and teachers’ work culture. Beginning with a sparkling theoretical discussion of the problems and pitfalls of back-to-basics reform efforts, author Dennis Carlson argues persuasively that the movement’s exclusive emphasis on functional literacy skills rather than higher-order thinking assures that students will remain on the lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder. He then proceeds with an empirical study of two urban high school districts in which he documents the latent effects of back-to-basics on teachers’ work lives as well as staff-administration clashes over efforts to implement restructuring programmes. This book offers a sensible and sophisticated treatment of some of the important issues facing urban education and will be of great interest to anyone working in Education.
Teachers and Philosophy: Essays on the Contact Zone (SUNY series, Horizons in the Philosophy of Education)
by Cara E. Furman; Tomas de Rezende RochaPhilosophers and educators come together to address contemporary issues in education.Teachers and Philosophy showcases the potential of education practitioners and philosophers of education working and writing together. Following Mary Louise Pratt, this meeting space is referred to as a "contact zone," and contributors demonstrate the power and benefit of writing from this liminal space. Introductory and concluding chapters provide an argument for the value of bringing together philosophers and practitioners as well as tips for facilitating these interactions. Situated amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the volume grapples with the challenges that practitioners face around teaching controversial topics, crafting inclusive curricula, indigeneity, dis/ability, urban schooling, nature-based education, rural education, mental health, coping with feelings of anger, and more. Each chapter ends with suggestions for further reading or engagement, questions for reflection and discussion, and an activity that a class or reading group can move through together.
Teachers and Teaching: Time and the Creative Tension
by Kaustuv RoyAgainst the backdrop of a historical debate between science and philosophy with regard to the nature of time, this book argues that our commonsense understanding of time is inadequate—especially for education. Teachers’ work is heavily imbued with the effects of clock time, and yet there is another time—duration—which remains out of sight precisely because our sights are filled with temporal things and projections of futurality. The book rests primarily on Henri Bergson’s work on time, and works toward intuition as phenomenological method for the discovery of a creative time in experience.
Teachers as Cultural Workers
by Paulo FreireIn Teachers as Cultural Workers, Freire speaks directly to teachers about the lessons learned from a lifetime of experience as an educator and social theorist. Freire’s words challenge all who teach to reflect critically on the meaning of the act of teaching as well as the meaning of learning. He shows why a teacher’s success depends on a permanent commitment to learning and training, as part of an ongoing appraisal of classroom practice. By opening themselves to recognition of the different roads students take in order to learn, teachers will become involved in a continual reconstruction of their own paths of curiosity, opening the doors to habits of learning that will benefit everyone in the classroom. In essays new to this edition, well-known and respected educators Peter McLaren, Joe Kincheloe, and Shirley Steinberg add their reflections on the relevance of Freire’s work to the study and practice of education across the globe.
Teachers as Cultural Workers
by Paulo FreireIn Teachers as Cultural Workers, Freire speaks directly to teachers about the lessons learned from a lifetime of experience as an educator and social theorist. Freire’s words challenge all who teach to reflect critically on the meaning of the act of teaching as well as the meaning of learning. He shows why a teacher’s success depends on a permanent commitment to learning and training, as part of an ongoing appraisal of classroom practice. By opening themselves to recognition of the different roads students take in order to learn, teachers will become involved in a continual reconstruction of their own paths of curiosity, opening the doors to habits of learning that will benefit everyone in the classroom. In essays new to this edition, well-known and respected educators Peter McLaren, Joe Kincheloe, and Shirley Steinberg add their reflections on the relevance of Freire’s work to the study and practice of education across the globe.
Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those Who Dare Teach
by Paulo FreireThis book challenges all who teach to reflect critically on the meaning of the act of teaching as well as the meaning of learning. Freire speaks directly to teachers about lessons he has learned during a lifetime of experience as an educator.
Teachers in Trouble: An Exploration of the Normative Character of Teaching
by Michael Manley-Casimir Romulo Magsino Stuart PiddockeThe teacher who has an affair with a student. The teacher who is a transvestite. The teacher who advocates personal beliefs. These are 'teachers in trouble.' Their behaviour, whether it occurs in the classroom or off the job, offends the community and brings down censure from the school board.At root, schools are cultural institutions and teaching, a cultural activity. Teachers are expected to shape students according to accepted community norms. They interpret and apply curricula - and can divert curricula from their intended purpose. Teachers are at the eye of the vortex in the struggle for control over education, buffeted by the forces of social change and conflicting public expectations. The authors of this book examine how teacher conduct is monitored and what types of misconduct can produce 'social dramas.' Boards of reference have been established to arbitrate disputes between school boards and teachers who are dismissed. Drawing on the decisions of these boards of reference across Canada, the authors identify normative issues and propose a classification scheme for contentious behaviours.Teachers in Trouble poses fundamental questions about the role of teachers in society. It is an invaluable guide for teachers and professional organizations, education administrators, and members of the community who are concerned about ethics in our schools.
Teachers of the People: Political Education in Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill
by Dana Villa2016 witnessed an unprecedented shock to political elites in both Europe and America. Populism was on the march, fueled by a substantial ignorance of, or contempt for, the norms, practices, and institutions of liberal democracy. It is not surprising that observers on the left and right have called for renewed efforts at civic education. For liberal democracy to survive, they argue, a form of political education aimed at “the people” is clearly imperative. In Teachers of the People, Dana Villa takes us back to the moment in history when “the people” first appeared on the stage of modern European politics. That moment—the era just before and after the French Revolution—led many major thinkers to celebrate the dawning of a new epoch. Yet these same thinkers also worried intensely about the people’s seemingly evident lack of political knowledge, experience, and judgment. Focusing on Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill, Villa shows how reformist and progressive sentiments were often undercut by skepticism concerning the political capacity of ordinary people. They therefore felt that “the people” needed to be restrained, educated, and guided—by laws and institutions and a skilled political elite. The result, Villa argues, was less the taming of democracy’s wilder impulses than a pervasive paternalism culminating in new forms of the tutorial state. Ironically, it is the reliance upon the distinction between “teachers” and “taught” in the work of these theorists which generates civic passivity and ignorance. And this, in turn, creates conditions favorable to the emergence of an undemocratic and illiberal populism.
Teachers versus the Public
by Paul E. Peterson Martin R. West Michael HendersonA comprehensive exploration of 21st Century school politics, Teachers versus the Public offers the first comparison of the education policy views of both teachers and the public as a whole, and reveals a deep, broad divide between the opinions held by citizens and those who teach in the public schools. Among the findings: Divisions between teachers and the public are wider and deeper than differences between other groups often thought to contest school policy, such as Republicans and Democrats, the young and the old, the rich and the poor, or African Americans and whites. The teacher-public gap is widest on such issues as merit pay, teacher tenure reform, impact of teacher unions, school vouchers, charter schools, and requirements to test students annually. Public support for school vouchers for all students, charter schools, and parent trigger laws increases sharply when people are informed of the national ranking of student performance in their local school district. Public willingness to give local schools high marks, its readiness to support higher spending levels, and its support for teacher unions all decline when the public learns the national ranking of their local schools. On most issues, teacher opinion does not change in response to new information nearly as much as it does for the public as a whole. In fact, the gap between what teachers and the public think about school reform grows even wider when both teachers and the public are given more information about current school performance, current expenditure levels, and current teacher pay.The book provides the first experimental study of public and teacher opinion. Using a recently developed research strategy, the authors ask differently worded questions about the same topic to randomly chosen segments of representative groups of citizens. This approach allows them to identify the impact on public opinion of new information on issues such as student performance and school expenditures in each respondent's community.The changes in public opinion when citizens receive information about school performance are largest in districts that perform below the national average. Altogether, the results indicate that support for many school reforms would increase if common core state standards were established and implemented in such a way as to inform the public about the quality of their local schools. These and many other findings illuminate the distance between teacher opinions and those of the public at large.About the Research: In partnership with the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance and the journal, Education Next, authors Paul E. Peterson, Martin West and Michael Henderson surveyed nationally representative samples of teachers and the public as a whole annually between 2007 and 2013.
Teachers' Know-How: A Philosophical Investigation (Journal of Philosophy of Education)
by Christopher WinchTeachers’ Know-How: A Philosophical Investigation presents a comprehensive and up to date philosophical treatment of the kinds of knowledge and “know-how” that educators should possess. Offers an original and in-depth study of teachers’ know-how which situates teaching within the spectrum of professions Critiques the currently fashionable craft conception of teaching and the view of teaching as protocol-driven which is currently influential in policymaking circles Utilizes epistemological debates on the nature of know-how to inform understanding of the work of teachers Features detailed examples including some drawn from the author’s own long professional experience of a teacher in a wide range of different contexts
Teachers, Professionalism and Class: A Study of Organized Teachers (Routledge Library Editions: Sociology of Education #42)
by J T Ozga M A LawnFirst published in 1981, this book examines the concept of professionalism in the context of the development of organized teachers. The argument is presented that the concept of professionalism is a complex one and its different meanings must be located within a historical context. Thus, its use as an ideological weapon aimed at controlling teachers must be appreciated, whilst, at the same time, it should be understood as a weapon of self defence for teachers in their struggle against dilution.
Teachers, Schools, And Society: A Brief Introduction To Education
by David M. Sadker Karen ZittlemanDavid Sadker's and Karen Zittleman's lively writing style captures the joys and challenges of teaching. The text stresses the importance of fairness and justice in school and society, focuses on the most crucial topic areas, and integrates the most current issues in education. In addition, the wealth of activities included--from online video observations to portfolio-building exercises--offers a broad range of ways to introduce students to the teaching profession.
Teaching Aboriginal Cultural Competence: Authentic Approaches
by Barbara Hill Jillene Harris Ruth BacchusThis book examines a collaborative partnership model between academia and Indigenous peoples, the goal of which is to integrate Indigenous perspectives into the curriculum. It demonstrates how the authentic and creative approaches employed have led to an evolution of curriculum and pedagogy that facilitates cultural competence among Australian graduate and undergraduate students. The book pursues an interdisciplinary approach based on highly practical examples, exemplars and methods that are currently being used to teach in this area. It focuses on facilitating student acquisition of knowledge, understanding, attitudes and skills, following Charles Sturt University’s Cultural Competence Pedagogical Framework. Further, it provides insights into the use of reflective practice in this context, and practical ideas on embedding content and sharing practices, highlighting examples of potential “ways forward,” both nationally and globally.
Teaching About Hegemony
by Paul OrlowskiPolitical progressives in Canada and the United States are deeply concerned by the manner in which their countries treat their poor. They are dismayed at the dismantling of the social welfare state, the weakening of public education systems and the grotesque and ever-growing inequality of wealth. To remedy this problem, citizens need to be more aware of how political ideology influences attitudes and actions, and they need to better comprehend the effects of hegemonic discourses in the corporate media and school curriculum. This book informs educators how to develop context-specific pedagogy that will help achieve a more enlightened citizenry and, as a result, a stronger democracy. Teaching about Hegemony: Race, Class and Democracy in the 21st Century promotes a progressive agenda for teaching that is rooted in critical pedagogy, it explains why ideological critique is necessary in raising political consciousness, it deconstructs white, middle-class hegemony in the formal school curriculum, and it examines corporate media and school curriculum as hegemonic devices. It also covers recent theory and research about race, class and democracy and how best to teach about these topics. Combining theory and sociological research with pedagogical approaches and classroom narratives, this book is fundamental for progressive educators interested in developing a politically conscious, progressive and active citizenry hungry for a stronger civil society.
Teaching Across Cultures: Contextualizing Education for Global Mission
by James E. PlueddemannIn our globalized world, educators often struggle to adapt to the contexts of diverse learners. In this practical resource, educator and missiologist James Plueddemann offers field-tested insights for teaching across cultural differences. He unpacks how different cultural dynamics may inhibit learning and offers a framework for integrating conceptual ideas into practical experience.
Teaching Africa
by George J. Sefa DeiWritten from the perspective of a knowledge base and educational practice that are both African-centred, this volume uses a discursive pedagogy that is anti-colonial in origin. It theorizes colonial - and re-colonial - relations and the implications of imperial structures on knowledge production and use; the understanding of indigenousness; and the pursuit of agency, resistance and subjective politics. Using a refined definition of colonial, less as 'foreign' or 'alien' but more 'imposed and dominating', the author shows us how colonialism is domesticated and how those who have been oppressed by dominant/hegemonic discourses may find it difficult to step out of them, let alone challenge or resist them. The book is a call for a critical interrogation of dominant knowledge about Africa in order to help the contemporary learner come to grips with the challenges and possibilities of knowing about the African world and the African human condition. The author's anti-colonial discursive platform addresses distorted Eurocentric views of Africa, raises ontological and epistemological questions about teaching methods and methodologies relating to Africa, and highlights knowledge indigenous to Africa. At the same time, it shows what the rest of the world can learn from this knowledge.
Teaching Bodies: Moral Formation in the Summa of Thomas Aquinas
by Mark D. JordanIn Teaching Bodies, leading scholar of Christian thought Mark D. Jordan offers an original reading of the Summa of Theology of Thomas Aquinas. Reading backward, Jordan interprets the main parts of the Summa, starting from the conclusion, to reveal how Thomas teaches morals by directing attention to the way God teaches morals, namely through embodied scenes: the incarnation, the gospels, and the sacraments. It is Thomas’s confidence in bodily scenes of instruction that explains the often overlooked structure of the middle part of the Summa, which begins and ends with Christian revisions of classical exhortations of the human body as a pathway to the best human life. Among other things, Jordan argues, this explains Thomas’s interest in the stages of law and the limits of virtue as the engine of human life.Rather than offer a synthesis of Thomistic ethics, Jordan insists that we read Thomas as theology to discover the unification of Christian wisdom in a pattern of ongoing moral formation. Jordan supplements his close readings of the Summa with reflections on Thomas’s place in the history of Christian moral teaching—and thushis relevance for teaching and writing in the present. What remains a puzzle is why Thomas chose to stage this incarnational moral teaching within the then-new genres of university disputation—the genres we think of as “Scholastic.” Yet here again the structure of the Summa provides an answer. In Jordan’s deft analysis, Thomas’s minimalist refusal to tell a new story except by juxtaposing selections from inherited philosophical and theological traditions is his way of opening room for God’s continuing narration in the development of the human soul.The task of writing theology, as Thomas understands it, is to open a path through the inherited languages of classical thought so that divine pedagogy can have its effect on the reader. As such, the task of the Summa, in Mark Jordan’s hands, is a crucial and powerful way to articulate Christian morals today.
Teaching Critical Thinking: Dialogue and Dialectic (Routledge Library Editions: Philosophy of Education #13)
by John E. McPeckThis book, first published in 1990, takes a critical look at the major assumptions which support critical thinking programs and discovers many unresolved questions which threaten their viability. John McPeck argues that some of these assumptions are incoherent or run counter to common sense, while others are unsupported by the available empirical evidence. This title will be of interest to students of the philosophy of education.
Teaching Democracy in an Age of Uncertainty: Place-Responsive Learning (Routledge International Studies in the Philosophy of Education)
by Gilbert Burgh Simone ThorntonThe strength of democracy lies in its ability to self-correct, to solve problems and adapt to new challenges. However, increased volatility, resulting from multiple crises on multiple fronts – humanitarian, financial, and environmental – is testing this ability. By offering a new framework for democratic education, Teaching Democracy in an Age of Uncertainty begins a dialogue with education professionals towards the reconstruction of education and by extension our social, cultural and political institutions. This book is the first monograph on philosophy with children to focus on democratic education. The book examines the ways in which education can either perpetuate or disrupt harmful social and political practices and narratives at the classroom level. It is a rethinking of civics and citizenship education as place-responsive learning aimed at understanding and improving human-environment relations to not only face an uncertain world, but also to face the inevitable challenges of democratic disagreement beyond merely promoting pluralism, tolerance and agreement. When viewed as a way of life democracy becomes both a goal and a teaching method for developing civic literacy to enable students to articulate and apprehend more than just the predominant political narrative, but to reshape it. This book will be of interest to scholars of philosophy, political science, education, democratic theory, civics and citizenship studies, and peace education research.
Teaching English Reading in the Chinese-Speaking World
by Clay WilliamsThis book investigates inherent, structural differences in the Chinese and English writing systems which predispose learners from childhood to develop specific literacy-learning strategies, which can impair later efforts at learning foreign language literacy if the foreign language script varies significantly from the native language script. It compares educational practices and philosophies in Chinese and English-speaking classrooms, and examines the psychological underpinnings of these literacy learning strategies. This book presents psychometric testing of adult reading strategy defaults and examines case study data, revealing that Chinese students are susceptible to misapplying Chinese character-level processing strategies to English word identification tasks, which decreases reading efficiency, and ultimately can lead to learning failure. Finally, a new educational framework is proposed for teaching beginning language-specific word identification and literacy-learning skills to learners whose first language script varies significantly from that of the target language.