Teaching as Principled Practice: Managing Complexity for Social Justice

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"Teacher candidates and practicing teachers will find inspiration and ideas for reflection throughout this text. The principled practice demonstrated in each chapter sets the stage for examination of one′s beliefs, passions, and values of teaching and learning. The vignettes present realistic problems with evidence that solutions are not simplistic but value laden and complex."
―Elsa L. Geskus, Kutztown University

"Teaching as Principled Practice provides educators with a valuable frame for rethinking and reconfirming the commitment to students and society in a world of globalization and standardization."
―Miriam Ben-Peretz, University of Haifa

"This book introduces prospective teachers to (and reminds practicing teachers about) key principles for guiding effective practice in urban settings. Through helpful vignettes and readable text, the authors clarify what these principles mean and how teachers can make these principles an embedded part of their work."
―Diane Kyle, University of Louisville

"This text provides much insight and variety of opinion regarding contemporary issues and educational practices in today′s society. The format is unique and encourages lively discussion in a university class setting."
―Rebecca S. Compton, East Central University

Teaching as Principled Practice: Managing Complexity for Social Justice presents a practical vision for effective teacher development emphasizing social justice. This vision is encompassed in a set of six principles that underlie the authors′ work with pre-service teachers, and is intended to guide one′s practice in the classroom. The text′s primary focus is on children and youth who have been traditionally underserved by educational institutions in the United States. It speaks directly to both pre-service and experienced teachers in a way that addresses the challenges of urban education for teachers and children.

The work is guided by six principles:

* Teaching is inherently moral work
* Teaching is an act of inquiry and reflection
* Learning is a developmental constructivist process
* The content of what we teach must be well understood by those who teach and those who learn
* Teaching is a collegial act
* Teaching is political

Teaching as Principled Practice is an ideal text for courses throughout the education curriculum, including introduction to education and curriculum and instruction. It will also be an invaluable reference for in-service teachers and administrators.

Key Features

* Chapters conclude with review questions to encourage reflection
* Includes real-world examples of principled practice in teacher education and practice
* Promotes a thorough connection of theory and practice

Linda R. Kroll, Ph.D. is a professor in the Department of Education at Mills College.  She has taught at Mills since 1988 and served for two years as Dean and Chair of the department.  She co-directs the Early Childhood portion of the Teachers for Tomorrow’s Schools program known as Developmental Perspectives in Teaching.  Her research interests focus on applying developmental and constructivist theory to understanding and facilitating children’s and teachers’ learning. She has been a preschool teacher for emotionally disturbed children, and an elementary school teacher in Vallejo, California where she taught combined classes of kindergarteners through third graders for 9 years.  She has been a teacher educator since 1979, where she helped found the UC Berkeley Developmental Teacher Education Program.  Her work with children focused on urban settings with children with special needs, English Language Learners and children of color who are traditionally underserved.  Her work with teachers has focused on urban school settings and in the Mills College Laboratory School.  She is a contributing author to Reframing Teacher Education:  Dimensions of a Constructivist Approach edited by Julie Rainer and to How Students Learn:  Reforming Schools Through Learner-Centered Education edited by Lambert and McCombs. She is currently president of the Association for Constructivist Teaching.

Dave Donahue, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Education at Mills College, Oakland, California, where he is also Co-Director of the secondary English-social studies teacher credential program.  Previously, he was a curriculum writer and developmental editor and social studies teacher in public schools.  He has worked with Amnesty International’s Human Rights Education program and the Canadian Human Rights Foundation over the past ten years and has developed and led training programs on human rights for teachers and activists in the U.S., Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. He is the author of two human rights curriculum guides, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights:  A Human Rights Perspective  and, with Nancy Flowers, The Uprooted:  Refugees and the United States.   His research interests include learning from community service and preparing secondary teachers to teach reading and writing in subject area classes.

Tomás Galguera, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Education at Mills College, Oakland, California, where he co-directs the pre-K-elementary Early Childhood Emphasis and Developmental Perspectives in Education teacher credential program. He specializes in English Language Development methodology courses for both elementary and secondary preservice teachers and has been a certified Spanish-bilingual elementary public school teacher in Oakland, California. In addition to contributing to the Full Options Science System’s Newsletter and publishing in The Multilingual Educator, he developed high school science curriculum modules for teachers of English learners and was a contributing author of Professional Development for Teachers of English Learners: A Scaffold for Change, published by the San Diego County Office of Education. Together with Joshua Fishman, he published Introduction to Test Construction in the Social and Behavioral Sciences and with Kenji Hakuta is a contributing author to Psychology and Educational Practice edited by Walberg and Haertel. His research interests include the pedagogy of teacher preparation for language-minority students and exploring ethnicity, race, culture, and language in education.

Vicki Kubler LaBoskey, Ph.D. is Professor of Education at Mills College, Oakland, California, where she is also Director of the elementary teacher credential program.  Previously, she was an urban elementary school teacher in East Los Angeles and San Jose, California where she taught multiethnic classes of kindergarteners through fourth graders for eight years. She has been a teacher educator since 1985, when she was the Associate Director of the Stanford Teacher Education Program for three years before coming to Mills. She is currently President Elect of the California Council on Teacher Education and Chair of the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. Her most recent publications include Narrative Inquiry in Practice: Advancing the Knowledge of Teaching with Nona Lyons and the two-volume International Handbook of Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practice with John Loughran, Mary Lynn Hamilton, and Tom Russell. Her research interests focus on the self-study of teacher education practices and on narrative approaches to the development and mentoring of critical reflection and inquiry in teaching.

Anna Ershler Richert, Ph.D. is a professor of Education at Mills College where she co-directs the Teachers for Tomorrows Schools Credential Program.  She came to Mills from Stanford University where she was Associate Director of the Stanford Teacher Education Program for three years.  She is active in various school reform efforts both locally and nationally including the Coalition of Essential Schools and Bay Area School Reform Collaborative. Currently she is a teacher education scholar with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and secretary of Division K of the American Education Research Association.  Recent publications reflect her interest in narrative methodology for teacher education and teacher research.  They include two book chapters:  "Narratives that teach:  Learning about teaching from the stories teachers tell," in Narrative Knowing in Teaching:  Exemplars of Reflective Teaching, Research and Teacher Education (2002), Lyons, Nona and LaBoskey, Vicki, (Eds.) Teachers College Press; and "Narratives as Experience Texts:  Writing Themselves Back In" (2001) in Teachers Caught in the Action:  The Work of Professional Development, Lieberman, A. and Miller, L., (Eds.), Teachers College Press.  Her research interests focus on teacher inquiry, teacher professional development, and the pedagogy of teacher education.