Catherine Cornbleth - Böcker

Understanding Teacher Education in Contentious Times examines how public, professional, and private or corporate agencies operate to shape teacher education and possibilities for its improvement. Teacher education programs, particularly those leading to state certification or licensure, are influenced not only by state regulations but also by required review and accreditation by an outside agency such as the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, and are subject to various contextual pressures such as the cultures of the institutions that host them and their surrounding communities, their potential student and employer markets, strong individuals, professional organizations, history or tradition, and, increasingly, external, usually privately-funded, special interest corporations such as the National Council on Teacher Quality. Unique among books on teacher education, this volume interweaves—in historical context including emerging trends—the complex contexts in which practice and reform efforts take place and are supported or impeded.

Understanding Teacher Education in Contentious Times examines how public, professional, and private or corporate agencies operate to shape teacher education and possibilities for its improvement. Teacher education programs, particularly those leading to state certification or licensure, are influenced not only by state regulations but also by required review and accreditation by an outside agency such as the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, and are subject to various contextual pressures such as the cultures of the institutions that host them and their surrounding communities, their potential student and employer markets, strong individuals, professional organizations, history or tradition, and, increasingly, external, usually privately-funded, special interest corporations such as the National Council on Teacher Quality. Unique among books on teacher education, this volume interweaves—in historical context including emerging trends—the complex contexts in which practice and reform efforts take place and are supported or impeded.

Studies the intersections of curriculum politics and policy-making throughout the world.Offering a range of studies on the intersections of curriculum politics, policy, and/or practice, this book addresses the following questions: Who decides what is taught in K-12 schools? On what basis? What actually happens in classroom practice? What do students have opportunities to learn? Who benefits from these decisions and practices? It includes case studies that span school levels, subject areas, and national boundaries, thus enriching the possibilities for cross-case analysis, interpretation, and insight.Curriculum dynamics are revealed in cases ranging from the macro-as in the case from South Africa-to the micro-as in the case of U.S. special education placement. Instances of curriculum politics, policy, and/or practice are brought to life and situated in their contemporary and historical contexts with particular attention to questions of knowledge control and distribution of benefits.Included is this uniquely comparative text are several American case studies, including a discussion of implications of "science for all," the politics and consequences of placing a significantly disabled student in a separate classroom after several years of inclusion, trying to embrace multicultural literature without dealing with racism close to home, and history-social studies curriculum policy intended as cultural containment. Also examined are the business-education culture clash in creating meaningful technology education in Canada, the politics of mandating "religious knowledge" curricula in Singapore, white South African students negotiating divergent stories of their country's past and present while trying to make sense of their own roles and future, and critical analysis of British educational discourses of social justice and their impact in the 1940s and 1990s.Contributors include Angela Calabrese-Brown, Nadine Dolby, Vivian Forssman, Diana Lawrence-Brown, Suzanne Miller, Margery Osborne, Jason Tan, Gina DeBlase Trzyna, Gaby Weiner, and John Willinsky.

This unique volume takes readers behind the scenes for an "insider/outsider" view of education policymaking in action. Two state-level case studies of social studies curriculum reform and textbook policy (California and New York) illustrate how curriculum decision making becomes an arena in which battles are fought over national values and priorities. Written by a New York education professor and a California journalist, the text offers a rare blend of academic and journalistic voices. The "great speckled bird" is the authors' counter-symbol to the bald eagle--a metaphor representing the racial-ethnic-cultural diversity that has characterized the U.S. since its beginnings and the multicultural reality of American society today.The text breaks new ground by focusing on the intersections of national debates and education policymaking. It situates the case studies within historical and contemporary cultural contexts--with particular attention to questions of power and knowledge control and how influence is exercised. By juxtaposing the contrasting cases of California and New York, the authors illustrate commonalities and differences in education policymaking goals and processes. By sharing stories of participants at and behind the scenes, policymaking comes alive rather than appearing to result from impersonal "forces" or "factors."

In Teaching with Vision, two respected scholars in teaching for social justice have gathered teachers from across the country to describe rich examples of extraordinary practice. This collection showcases the professional experience and wisdom of classroom teachers who have been navigating standards- and test-driven teaching environments in California and New York, without losing their vision of what teaching can be. Representing diverse backgrounds, schools, grade levels, subject areas, and specialties, these teachers talk personally about their practice, their challenges, and how they learned to maintain a social and pedagogical vision for their work. This book is essential reading for new teachers who are struggling to make their teaching inspiring, creative, and culturally responsive, especially those who are working in less than supportive environments.This practical resource for pre- and inservice teachers:Examines the struggle between grassroots, culturally responsive teaching and a top-down, teach-by-the-numbers approach.Shows teachers constructing math curriculum, history units, and writing projects grounded in their students’ lives and the world beyond the classroom.Offers both an antidote to standardisation and a source of inspiration for public school teachers, teacher educators, students, and parents.