The End Of Our Fifth Decade

In 2012 it was 50 years ago that the initial independent core of the Faculty of Archaeology was founded. On the occasion of this 50th anniversary the Board of the Faculty of Archaeology has asked the editors of the Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia to produce a special volume of Analecta and open its pages not only for Prehistoric research but to all Archaeological disciplines. The editors invited the permanent staff of the Faculty to provide a contribution. The End Of Our Fifth Decade is the result. The subjects offered are very diverse and provide the reader with a written Tableau de la troupe', as it was intended to be. The first contributions are about the present. They deal with the problem of preserving archaeology in situ, the evaluation of twenty years of the Malta convention and the current variety of approaches in archaeology. However the rest of the book is about the past. This volume is organised in such a way that you go back in time and as good archaeologists we start from the top and dig our way into the past. The part about the past starts in the 17th century AD in the Caribbean and end with research on a 300 000 years old site from Germany."

Teacher learning doesn’t end with initial preparation; many insights and skills remain to be added. This book is concerned with ongoing teacher learning, its goals (Part I) and pathways (Part II). It is based on a longitudinal study of 42 teachers: 20 over their first 8 years of teaching and 22 over their first 5 years. The areas of continued teacher learning identified in our study were: vision of teaching, program planning, assessment, relevance, subject content and pedagogy, classroom organization and community, inclusion, and professional identity. The pathways of learning included informal and formal PD, teacher inquiry, and school-based learning. A key finding of our research was that, over the years, teachers learn a great deal informally. However, they do so largely on their own and under considerable stress. Teachers need more support than they currently receive, both for survival and to enhance their informal learning. Teachers can benefit significantly from external input, but their everyday learning makes them key “experts” in teaching. Accordingly, PD providers should work with teachers, utilizing their existing knowledge. This book is written for consideration by teachers, student teachers, teacher educators, PD providers, policy developers, and others interested in facilitating teacher learning. Some of us have been writing – somewhat desperately – on these ideas for years. Beck and Kosnik have given us strong evidence that the ideas are effective in practice. I hope this persuasive and beautifully written book will be widely read.Nel Noddings, Lee Jacks Professor of Education Emerita, Stanford University This book makes a powerful case for taking teachers’ professional development seriously. It brings us the voices of beginning teachers as they deepen their professional knowledge over time and makes clear the depth of commitment they bring to the job. Professor Gemma Moss, Institute of Education, University of London

Lorene Cary’s grandmother moves in, and everything changes: day-to-day life, family relationships, the Nana she knew—even their shared past. From cherished memories of weekends she spent as a child with her indulgent Nana to the reality of the year she spent “ladysitting” her now frail grandmother, Lorene Cary journeys through stories of their time together and five generations of their African American family. Brilliantly weaving a narrative of her complicated yet transformative relationship with Nana—a fierce, stubborn, and independent woman, who managed a business until she was 100—Cary looks at Nana’s impulse to control people and fate, from the early death of her mother and oppression in the Jim Crow South to living on her own in her New Jersey home. Cary knew there might be some reckonings to come. Nana was a force: Her obstinacy could come out in unanticipated ways—secretly getting a driver’s license to show up her husband, carrying on a longtime feud with Cary’s father. But Nana could also be devoted: to Nana’s father, to black causes, and—Cary had thought—to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Facing the inevitable end raises tensions, with Cary drawing on her spirituality and Nana consoling herself with late-night sweets and the loyalty of caregivers. When Nana doubts Cary’s dedication, Cary must go deeper into understanding this complicated woman. In Ladysitting, Cary captures the ruptures, love, and, perhaps, forgiveness that can occur in a family as she bears witness to her grandmother’s 101 vibrant years of life.