Teaching in America – The Slow Revolution - Hardcover

Grant, Gerald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674869613 ISBN 13: 9780674869615

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1999

Synopsis

If the essential acts of teaching are the same for schoolteachers 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 practive in a system dominated by an aministrative 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 recen 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.

About this title

Review

Grant and Murray base their work on years of research in grade schools, high schools, and higher education institutions. They address the positive aspects of teaching and explore questions dealing with the empowerment of U.S. schoolteachers. The authors argue that teaching is a multi-skilled activity that involves knowing the learners, engaging and motivating the students, imparting knowledge, modeling appropriate behavior, and evaluating student progress...Teachers, parents, and those preparing themselves for teaching as a vocation will be inspired by this true analysis of their profession. Recommended for all libraries.--Samuel T. Huang "Library Journal "

About the Author

Gerald Grant is the Hannah Hammond Professor of Education and Sociology, Emeritus at Syracuse University. Christine Murray is Associate Professor of Education and Human Development at the State University of New York College at Brockport.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674869613
• ISBN 13: 9780674869615
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 284