In this skillfully written and incisive book, Marilyn Cochran-Smith guides the reader through the conflicting visions and ideologies surrounding educating teachers in a diverse democratic society. Mapping the way to reconceptualizing the problems in teacher education today, this volume spells out in detail the problem of teacher preparation and why it needs to be understood as both a learning and a political problem.
In this long-awaited sequel to ""Inside/Outside: Teacher Research and Knowledge"", two leaders in the field of practitioner research offer a radically different view of the relationship of knowledge and practice and of the role of practitioners in educational change. In their new book, the authors put forward the notion of inquiry as stance as a challenge to the current arrangements and outcomes of schools and other educational contexts. They call for practitioner researchers in local settings across the United States and across the world to ally their work with others, as part of larger social and intellectual movements for social change and social justice.
Cochran-Smith and her research team argue that it is time for teacher educators to reclaim accountability. They critique major accountability initiatives, exposing the lack of evidence behind these policies and the negative impact they have on teacher education. They also offer an achievable alternative based on a commitment to equity and democracy.
Cochran-Smith and her research team argue that it is time for teacher educators to reclaim accountability. They critique major accountability initiatives, exposing the lack of evidence behind these policies and the negative impact they have on teacher education. They also offer an achievable alternative based on a commitment to equity and democracy.
This volume explores in detail the ways that working with word processing interacts with the social processes of classrooms to shape participants' theories and practices of writing. It offers an expanded image of the ways teachers construct writing curricula that includes word processing, and reveals an interactive, long-term relationship between the writing contexts teachers and children construct and the capacities and requirements of writing tools. The volume also builds an analytic framework for thinking and talking about teachers, students and technology, which captures the dynamic interrelationships over time of classroom cultures, teachers' interpretations and decisions, and uses of word processing. The authors argue that over time both teachers and children learned ways to write differently with word processing. That is, working with word processing shaped the ways teachers thought about teaching and learning writing, and also shaped the ways beginning writers understood and practiced the activity. This volume makes clear that word processing itself does not make children write better, prompt them to revise more, or teach them new writing strategies. But, when teachers and students work together with word processing, they often construct social contexts within which children have opportunities to learn new writing strategies, new ways to think about strategies they already have, and ways to execute those strategies efficiently.
