Teaching in America : the slow revolution / Gerald Grant and Christine E. Murray.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grant, Gerald.

Contributor:

Murray, Christine E.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Teachers--United States.

Teachers.

Teachers--United States--Case studies.

Teaching--United States.

Teaching.

Professions--United States.

Professions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (280p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The authors describe the evolution of teaching in America over the last 100 years. They compare college professors with school teachers and analyse the essential acts of teaching in a way that should help teachers become bettter practitioners

If the essential acts of teaching are the same for school teachers and professors, why are they seen as members of quite separate professions? Would the nation's schools be better served if teachers shared more of the authority that professors have long enjoyed? Will a slow revolution be completed that enables schoolteachers to take charge of their practice - to shoulder more responsibility for hiring, mentoring, promoting and, if necessary, firing their peers?;This text explores these questions by analyzing the essential acts of teaching in a way that should help teachers become more thoughtful practitioners. It presents portraits of teachers (most of them women) struggling to take control of their practice in a system dominated by an administrative elite (mostly male). The educational system, the authors argue, will be saved not by better managers but by better teachers. The only way to secure them is by attracting talented recruits, developing their skills, and instituting better means of assessing teachers' performance.;Grant and Murray describe the evolution of the teaching profession over the 20th century, and then focus in depth on recent experiments that gave teachers the power to shape their schools and mentor young educators. They conclude by analyzing three equally possible scenarios depicting the role of teachers in 2020.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

1. Two Professions?

2. Assessing America’s Teachers and Schools

3. The Essential Acts of Teaching

4. Three Questions Every Teacher Must Answer

5 The Modern Origins of the Profession: Florence’s Story, 1890–1920

6. Reforming Teaching in the Midst of Social Crisis: Andrena’s Story, 1960–1990

7. Teachers’ Struggle to Take Charge of Their Practice: The Rochester Story, 1987–1997

8. The Progress of the Slow Revolution throughout the Nation

9. Teaching in 2020

Research Methods

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-268) and index.

ISBN:

9780674037892

0674037898

OCLC:

923117186