Combating Hatred: Educators Leading the Way - Softcover

Furin, Terrance L.

9781578869596: Combating Hatred: Educators Leading the Way

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1578869595 ISBN 13: 9781578869596

Publisher: R&L Education, 2009

Hatred and violence in our nation's schools have made headlines in recent years. Violence often grows from student alienation, intolerance, and prejudice, and it is not limited to schools making headlines? hatred can be found in almost every public and private school in our nation. Combating Hatred provides several practical case studies of teachers, administrators, and school board members who have successfully combated intolerance, prejudice, and hatred in their schools. Furin details innovative ways used in the case studies to create communities that sought the highest social justice values of respect and equality for everyone. Some of the individuals from the case studies led their communities through true metamorphoses. Each chapter contains a scholar-practitioner section that attempts to narrow the gap between theory and practice. The case studies presented illuminate important person-centered educational theories, especially those of John Dewey and his Progressive successors, which can help all educators combat intolerance, prejudice, and hatred before the victims turn uncontrollable violence.

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About the Author:

Terrance L. Furin is director of international programs for the Education Department at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

Review:

During his years as a superintendent, Terry Furin impressed me as a caring leader with a view toward bettering the human spirit. In an age when outside forces seem intent on hurting public schools and those they serve, I find myself drawn even more to his perspective on leadership. How can you not find much to like in the new organizational chart he suggests for elementary and secondary schools that positions the child at the center of the educational process? (Jay Goldman School Administrator)

As members of a civilized society with democratic ideals, we have a responsibility to combat the hatred of differences and the hatred associated with the potential loss of privilege. As superintendent of a racially, religiously, and socio-economically diverse school district I found Terry Furin's book to be relevant and inspirational. A must-read for educators attempting to make a moral and pragmatic difference in our global society. (William Zelei, Superintendent of South Euclid - Lyndhurst School District)

The pressures of daily life often keep educational leaders from recognizing the need for transformation in their schools. Addressing both theory and practice, this book presents stories of educators who faced those needs and created communities to handle them. What a service Furin provides by encouraging us to see ourselves as such visionary actors. (George W. Bur, President of Saint Joseph's Prep School in Pennsylvania)

In South Pacific, Rogers and Hammerstein tell us ?You've got to be taught before it's too late, before you are 6, 7 or 8, to hate all the people your relatives hate.? The learning from such teaching runs deep, and is incredibly difficult to overcome, but possible. In Combating Hatred, Terry Furin guides educators to overcome learned hatred at both the practical and theoretical levels. His book is rich in short case studies, with sufficient detail to get a real sense of the challenges each case addresses as well as of how to address those challenges. Part of the value of this book is in the fact that the solutions are not theoretical, but real. They are the solutions that practitioners have used. But Furin doesn?t stop there. He links the case and the processes for addressing them to theoretical perspectives that undergird the processes. Not only do those theoretical perspectives provide a kind of rationale for the actions educators and their communities took to address each challenge. Importantly, they provide a basis for adapting those processes to different contexts and different challenges. So in a real sense, Furin has provided a scholar-practitioner how-to for overcoming hatred and bigotry without step-by-step techniques. For as Furin (Harris Sokoloff, director of Center for School Study Councils and director of Penn Project for Civic Engagement)

Combating Hatred is an important resource for school leaders as it brings theory and practice together around the vital topic of confronting hatred. Furin shares insights gleaned from many years as an extraordinary educational leader. (Robert Palestini Ed.D, Professor Emeritus, Educational Leadership, Saint Joseph’s University)

In South Pacific, Rogers and Hammerstein tell us “You've got to be taught before it's too late, before you are 6, 7 or 8, to hate all the people your relatives hate.” The learning from such teaching runs deep, and is incredibly difficult to overcome, but possible. In Combating Hatred, Terry Furin guides educators to overcome learned hatred at both the practical and theoretical levels. His book is rich in short case studies, with sufficient detail to get a real sense of the challenges each case addresses as well as of how to address those challenges. Part of the value of this book is in the fact that the solutions are not theoretical, but real. They are the solutions that practitioners have used. But Furin doesn't stop there. He links the case and the processes for addressing them to theoretical perspectives that undergird the processes. Not only do those theoretical perspectives provide a kind of rationale for the actions educators and their communities took to address each challenge. Importantly, they provide a basis for adapting those processes to different contexts and different challenges. So in a real sense, Furin has provided a scholar-practitioner how-to for overcoming hatred and bigotry without step-by-step techniques. For as Furin acknowledges, there are no techniques for combating hatred and bigotry―rather, we must address each case on its own, with adaptive processes based in theory. Furin's book is a masterful guide to just that, and one that every educator will find useful, both practically and theoretically. (Harris Sokoloff, director of Center for School Study Councils and director of Penn Project for Civic Engagement)

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