"It is our opinion that this book represents an important contribution that is well worth reading. We urge the readers of Teaching and Teacher Education to take the time to find this text and read through the chapters themselves. We expect that you will find them to be interesting, provocative, and well worth the effort it takes to search for the book."– Teaching and Teacher Education
This book examines the relationship between teacher theorizing and teacher action as illustrated by the curricular and instructional practices of teachers. The authors show that all teaching is guided by theory developed by the teachers. Teachers could not begin to practice without some knowledge of the context of their practice and without ideas about what can and should be done in those circumstances. In this sense, teachers are guided by personal, practical theories that structure their activities and guide them in making decisions.
This literature is very significant in explaining and interpreting many phenomena of schooling such as why teachers alter curriculum documents and other policies, how inservice education can be improved, how supervisors can help teachers to improve their practices, and how administrators can become leaders to improve education. This perspective has broad and specific implications for every facet of education. Those interested in teacher education and development, in supervision, in curriculum, and in administration will find it especially relevant.
E. Wayne Ross is Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. He research interests focus on the influence of social and institutional contexts on teachers' practice as well as the role of curriculum and teaching in building a democratic society in the face of antidemocratic impulses of greed, individualism, and intolerance. In recent years he has examined the influence of the educational standards and high-stakes testing movements on curriculum and teaching. His most recent research investigates the surveillance-based and spectacular conditions of (post)modern schools and society in an effort to develop both a radical critique of the "disciplinary gaze" and a means by which teachers, students and other stakeholders might resist its various conformative, anti-democratic, anti-collective, and oppressive potentialities. He has published in a wide variety of academic journals as well as the popular press, including Z Magazine. His books include: Neoliberalism and Education Reform (edited with Rich Gibson); The Social Studies Curriculum; Race, Ethnicity and Education; Defending Public Schools, and many others.Ross is a co-founder of The Rouge Forum, a group of educators, parents, and students seeking a democratic society. He is also editor of several academic journals, including Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor, Cultural Logic, and Critical Education. A former secondary social studies (grades 8-12) and day care teacher in North Carolina and Georgia, Dr. Ross was Distinguished University Scholar and Chair of the Department of Teaching at the University of Louisville prior to his arrival at UBC in 2004. He has also been a faculty member at the State University of New York campuses at Albany and Binghamton.
