Studying Teachers Lives

To develop a mode of educational research which speaks both of and to the teacher we require more study of the lives of teachers. This book provides a vital insight into the ways in which teachers' bakgrounds and career histories affect their teaching methods and approaches. Many issues are covered ranging from the question of teacher drop-out to the importance of teacher socialisation. The studies employ a range of different methodologies allowing the reader to assess their varying strengths and weaknesses, but throughout they reaffirm the centrality of the teacher in educational research.

The use of teacher biography and teacher narrative is an increasingly substantial educational movement, yet there is a dearth of material available to guide researchers interested in using these techniques. Goodson's book aims to fill this gap, evaluating various methods and providing a contextual backdrop about teachers' case studies and biographies. The studies included employ a range of different methodologies, allowing the reader to assess their varying strengths and weaknesses, but throughout they re-affirm the centrality of the teacher in educational research. Covered are a wide range of issues from the importance of teachers' socialization to the questions of teacher drop-out.

Investigating the Teacher’s Life and Work attempts to bring together the methodological and substantive aspects of studying the teacher’s life and work. Some of the chapters in the book provide a “how to do” approach for those wishing to study the teacher’s life and work employing a life history method; whilst other chapters provide the kind of substantive and generic findings which might be anticipated when conducting life history work.

Preschool Teachers’ Lives and Work focuses on preschool teachers as people, what they do, and how they are affected by what they do. Highly politicized and hotly debated, preschool today is increasingly focused on comparatively narrow views of school readiness and academic outcomes which are generally in opposition to the broader view of readiness proposed by NAEYC. This powerful book, based around interviews and data drawn primarily from Head Start programs, illustrates the profound humanity of this profession and underscores the pressing and insistent need for greater investments in teachers’ well-being.

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book discusses key aspects of life in schools and classrooms, and surveys the changes that have occurred over the years in educational research, policy making and practice in these school and classroom settings. It not only examines cutting-edge research in these areas, but also showcases good practices in the field. Among the topics reviewed are recent developments in assessment, methods for collecting and analysing data on classroom practice, school leadership and the pros and cons of class size and small-class teaching; topics which are currently hotly debated in education systems around the globe. As such, the book objectively examines the various debates, and surveys the full range of evidence available. Education researchers, policy makers and practitioners often hold differing views about the reasons for teacher and student behaviour in classrooms and, for example, its relevance to class size. Many of these views are based on ‘gut feelings’ rather than hard evidence. Unfortunately, these three groups, with differing perspectives, often ‘talk past each other’ rather than engage in a productive, mutually beneficial dialogue. The book builds an effective bridge between researchers, policy makers and practitioners regarding the impact of these various aspects of classroom life, so that the viewpoints of each can be carefully considered and evaluated.

Black students' bodies and minds are under attack. We're fighting back. From the north to the south, corporate curriculum lies to our students, conceals pain and injustice, masks racism, and demeans our Black students. But it¿s not only the curriculum that is traumatizing students.