Teaching in America: The Slow Revolution

by Gerald Grant, Christine E. Murray

If the essential acts of teaching are the same for schoolteachers and professors, why are they seen as members of quite separate professions? Would the nation's schools be better served if teachers shared more of the authority that professors have long enjoyed? Will a slow revolution be completed that enables schoolteachers to take charge of their practice--to shoulder more responsibility for hiring, mentoring, promoting, and, if necessary, firing their peers? This book explores these questions by analyzing the essential acts of teaching in a way that will help all teachers become more thoughtful practitioners. It presents portraits of teachers (most of them women) struggling to take control of their practice in a system dominated by an administrative elite (mostly male). The educational system, Gerald Grant and Christine Murray argue, will be saved not by better managers but by better teachers. And the only way to secure them is by attracting talented recruits, developing their skills, and instituting better means of assessing teachers' performance. Grant and Murray describe the evolution of the teaching profession over the last hundred years, and then focus in depth on recent experiments that gave teachers the power to shape their schools and mentor young educators. The authors conclude by analyzing three equally possible scenarios depicting the role of teachers in 2020.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 10, 1999

About the author

Gerald Grant is Hannah Hammond Professor of Education and Sociology, Emeritus, at Syracuse University.

Reviews

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

The authors ground their work in research, documented at the conclusion noting the field work and fidelity to their accuracy ambition.

The first fifty pages or so I wasn't yet sold. Chapter four was the hook that got me- how do you answer the three questions as a teacher- what kind of teacher are you and what you stand for. The book is well written, and not as easy to read as some due to the intensity of their work. Page after page as I continued, I pondered what balance I aim for with children, am I happy with the relationships I have with colleagues and families, and do I transmit or transform societal values. It's not a superficial glaze, but thought-provoking material written almost twenty years ago noting aims and anticipated changes for the year 2020.
I'd definitely buy and read the book- or at least borrow one from a library. It's worth every minute.