Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)"Teaching in America: The slow revolution" is a good read.
Particularly interesting, for me, was the history of the developing professionalism of teachers. The authors make the point that the first revolution, brilliantly captured by Callahan (Education and the Cult of Efficiency) which saw the rise of the administrator class while teachers "... remained locked in a (sic.) hierachical system in which they were treated as hirelings whose work was mandated by a male administrative elite."
The authors argue passionately for a second revolution in teaching which will see teachers recognised as valued professionals. However the price that must be paid, according to the authors, is that teachers need to "... convince the public that they have the will and capacity to make judgments about who is fit to teach and who should be dismissed for incompetence. Teachers must show that they have standards by which their peers will be judged ...."
The growth of teacher professionalism and autonomy will clearly be at the expense of current administrative roles and this is not examined in depth in the book.
Chapter 9 - Teaching in 2020 was excellent and in a section called "Contrasts between the two revolutions" the points examined are: The nature of peer control; Allocation of time and money; Credibility, serving the public good; A revolution by women; Pressure for more egalitarian outcomes; The nature of markets for professional skills; and Sharing authority with parents.
I thought the book presented lots of useful information and thought that the argument that teaching was devalued among professions because (among other things) it was seen as women's work was a call to arms.
Teaching in America is a book that should be placed in the professional reading section for teachers in every school.
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