Teaching in America: The Slow Revolution - Hardcover

Grant, Gerald; Murray, Christine E.

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 book explores these questions by analyzing the essential acts of teaching in a way that will help all 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, Gerald Grant and Christine Murray argue, will be saved not by better managers but by better teachers. And 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 last hundred years, and then focus in depth on recent experiments that gave teachers the power to shape their schools and mentor young educators. The authors conclude by analyzing three equally possible scenarios depicting the role of teachers in 2020.

About this title

About the Authors

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.

Reviews

This unusual book began at the authors' dinner tables, when they noticed that their spouses?one an elementary school teacher, one a university professor?were treated quite differently even though their work was "essentially the same." This realization prompted months of research into the history of schoolteachers and university professors. Grant and Murray refer to the crusade of college professors in the late 19th century as the "first revolution"?in which male professors fought a male administrative regime for higher pay and control over curriculum and tenure. A second revolution, they argue, is occurring now among schoolteachers, but slowly. It "pits mostly female workers, who have often been demeaned as high-paid baby-sitters, against entrenched male leaders." The book chronicles the significant progress of this slow revolution, focusing on three landmark case studies. Readers concerned with the condition of public schools and the status of schoolteachers will find that Grant and Murray not only provide them with solid ammunition for debate but also give them reason to keep up their spirits. (Mar.) FYI: Teaching in America won the publisher's annual prize awarded to an outstanding book about education and society.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

At a time when teachers--and their much-maligned product--are under severe scrutiny, Grant and Murray examine changing notions about the profession. They cite a quiet and slow revolution that advocates giving teachers more control over what and how they teach, putting them on a par with university professors. This book offers historical perspective on how the profession has changed, demographics on teacher and student populations in modern public school systems, and critical examination of current experiments to improve teaching. The authors are firm supporters of teacher efforts to wrest control from administrators and bureaucrats and to deal with their unions' desire to protect members--and the unions' own vested interests. The authors suggest that what is needed to improve teaching is more career development, focus on teaching skills, and more rigorous evaluation of teaching results. Grant and Murray provide thoughtful insight into how teaching is evolving at this critical point in the development of U.S. school systems. Vanessa Bush

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674869613
• ISBN 13: 9780674869615
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288