A Classroom of Her Own: How New Teachers Develop Instructional, Professional, and Cultural Competence

"This engaging and insightful book highlights issues of power and authority, which are often overlooked yet critically important in teacher preparation, induction, and retention."
―Judith Haymore Sandholtz
Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Education
University of California, Riverside

"A Classroom of Her Own is a rare combination of revealing case studies and practical advice designed to help beginning teachers learn how to teach."
―Elliot W. Eisner
Lee Jacks Professor of Education and Professor of Art
School of Education, Stanford University

As practical as it is insightful . . . for teacher trainers and for teachers at all levels.

The extraordinary challenges that await all new teachers at the start of their teaching careers become even more complex when the new teachers are young, white, and female. Close to 80% of all new teachers entering the field match that demographic, and those are the teachers most often assigned to urban classrooms with high concentrations of at-risk students. Vulnerable to challenges based on age, power, experience, authority, race, class, and gender, those new teachers are the ones that A Classroom of Her Own follows, observing their on-the-job struggles and achievements as they develop confidence and competence in instructional, professional, and cultural realms. Chapters cover:

• Authority with colleagues, supervisors, aides, veteran teachers, parents, and students
• Professional identity and presentation of self
• Presentation of emotions, including anger, fear, frustration, and courage
• School assignments, school environment, and school culture
• Administrative issues, evaluation, supervision, accountability, and committee work
• Moral dilemmas, jurisdiction, fairness, and integrity

Offering description and prescription, observation and advice, real-life experiences and tips for success from the new teachers themselves, this wonderful new resource on teacher preparation, induction, and retention should be essential reading for all teacher trainers, mentors, supervisors, staff developers, principals, and parent-community groups.

Dana Haight Cattani, a writer and researcher, holds a doctorate in curricu­lum and teacher education from Stanford University. She studies teacher education and induction, school/university collaboration, and the sociol­ogy of education. She has conducted qualitative evaluation of school reform and has been a university and school site supervisor of beginning teachers. A former elementary and high school English teacher, Dr. Cattani was a fellow and teacher consultant with the California Writing Project, where she published and presented classroom research. Currently, she is active in school governance and as a classroom volunteer in her local public schools.The mother of three, she lives with her family in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Her e-mail address is dana_cattani@stanfordalumni.org.