Getting to Where We Meant to Be: Working Toward the Educational World We Imagine/d - Softcover

Patricia H. Hinchey (author)|Pamela J. Konkol (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1975500016 ISBN 13: 9781975500016

Publisher: Myers Education Press, 2018

Synopsis

How is it, this text asks, that given such good intentions among education professionals, things in schools can go so very wrong? The problem, Hinchey and Konkol posit, is that unspoken and misleading assumptions result in choices, decisions and policies with disastrous consequences for kids. They tease out those assumptions on the key issues of school goals, curriculum, education for citizenship, discipline, and school reform, inviting readers to think again, to question the taken-for-granted, in the hope of better aligning intentions and outcomes. This book is the perfect text for both undergraduate and graduate classrooms devoted to the study of public education. Questions at the end of each chapter point to ways for preservice and inservice teachers, as well as administrators and other education personnel, to advance their thinking about choices in their own contexts. In addition, suggested readings, websites and videos offer more food for thought.

About this title

Review:

"If you'd like to see public education thrive, here is a book to bolster your arguments. Down-to-earth writing and excellent choice of content allow vitally important concepts about schooling in contemporary America to be analyzed and easily comprehended. It is one of the clearest discussions of curriculum issues and their meaning and importance for our teachers, schools, parents and yes, for our nation as well. Every schools' decision about curriculum is a decision about what's in and what's out of the knowledge base for students in their state or nation. This insightful and highly readable book explains why these decisions should never be made lightly."--David C. Berliner "Arizona State University "

"Getting to Where We Meant to Be is an insightful, thoughtful, and readable book well-suited for undergraduates in teacher education programs. The authors stimulate the reader's critical reflection on the assumptions they may hold about schools while also discussing social justice orientations and the importance of the relationship between public education and democracy."--Teachers College Record

"This wonderful book, written for easy understanding, provokes the reader to rethink the decisions being made for the public schools. Through addressing general assumptions surrounding the public school, Hinchey and Konkol challenge readers to reconsider their understandings and expectations about curriculum and school politics. ..." (Read the full review in Multicultural Education, Spring/Summer 2018, Vol 25, No. 3-4)

--H. Prentice Baptiste and Mika C. Leck "New Mexico State University, Las Cruces "

"Education is plagued with good intentions gone awry, particularly when the follow-through is framed by commonsensical assumptions that lack a sound research basis. Hinchey and Konkol paint a compelling and nuanced picture of exactly how this is happening in many core areas of schooling, and then offer concrete tools for reframing and reimagining. In this moment when too many so-called reforms are taking advantage of seductive rhetoric, educators and policy makers alike who are fortunate enough to pick up this book will find themselves at once enraptured, unsettled, and more hopeful."--Kevin Kumashiro, Author of Bad Teacher!: How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture

"In this provocative and compelling book, Pat Hinchey and Pamela Konkol challenge us to rethink assumptions about teaching, learning, and curriculum. Their powerful text details assumptions currently dominating neoliberal education reform as well as alternative perspectives, illuminating complexities
in critical issues that often go unexamined. Those who care about public education and the imperative of its deep potential need to read, contemplate, and take purposeful action prompted in Getting to Where We Meant to Be."--Brian D. Schultz, Professor and Chair of Teacher Education at Miami University

About the Author:

Patricia H. Hinchey is Professor Emerita of Education at Penn State, where she taught a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses and frequently conducted professional development workshops for both K-12 and higher education educators. She is also a Fellow with the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is author or co-author of six texts, editor or co-editor of several more, and she has also published numerous journal articles. Pamela J. Konkol is a professor of educational foundations, social policy, and research and the founding director of the Center for Policy Studies and Social Justice at Concordia University Chicago. She currently serves as an Executive Officer for the American Educational Studies Association.

About this edition

• Publisher: Myers Education Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1975500016
• ISBN 13: 9781975500016
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184