Tinkering toward utopia : a century of public school reform / David Tyack & Larry Cuban.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tyack, David B.

Contributor:

Cuban, Larry.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Educational change--United States--History--19th century.

Educational change.

Educational change--United States--History--20th century.

Education--Social aspects--United States.

Education.

Education and state--United States.

Education and state.

Education--Political aspects--United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (184 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 1995.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Tinkering Toward Utopia documents the dynamic tension between Americans' faith in education as a panacea and the moderate pace of change in educational practices For over a century, Americans have translated their cultural anxieties and hopes into dramatic demands for educational reform. Although policy talk has sounded a millennial tone, the actual reforms have been gradual and incremental. Tinkering toward Utopia documents the dynamic tension between Americans' faith in education as a panacea and the moderate pace of change in educational practices. In this book, David Tyack and Larry Cuban explore some basic questions about the nature of educational reform. Why have Americans come to believe that schooling has regressed? Have educational reforms occurred in cycles, and if so, why? Why has it been so difficult to change the basic institutional patterns of schooling? What actually happened when reformers tried to "reinvent" schooling? Tyack and Cuban argue that the ahistorical nature of most current reform proposals magnifies defects and understates the difficulty of changing the system. Policy talk has alternated between lamentation and overconfidence. The authors suggest that reformers today need to focus on ways to help teachers improve instruction from the inside out instead of decreeing change by remote control, and that reformers must also keep in mind the democratic purposes that guide public education.

Contents:

Prologue: Learning from the Past 1. Progress or Regress? 2. Policy Cycles and Institutional Trends 3. How Schools Change Reforms 4. Why the Grammar of Schooling Persists 5. Reinventing Schooling Epilogue: Looking toward the Future Notes Acknowledgments Index

Notes:

Originally published: 1995.

Virginia and Warren Stone Fund Prize, 1995.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [145]-176) and index.

ISBN:

9780674044524

0674044525

OCLC:

923111178