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Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School
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The future of learning depends absolutely on the future of teaching. In this latest and most important collaboration, Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan show how the quality of teaching is captured in a compelling new idea: the professional capital of every teacher working together in every school. Speaking out against policies that result in a teaching force that is inexp
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Hardcover, 220 pages
Published
March 9th 2012
by Teachers College Press
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Start your review of Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School

I was really keen to read this as Fullan and Hargreaves featured prominently in my own Masters work about 'Educational Change'. I was not disappointed. Easy to read and yet still thought provoking in its content. I loved their anecdotes and their collaborative writer's voice is engaging and charismatic. They inspire change and provide a road map for action. What more could you ask?
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Professional Capital is a highly readable text that makes the case for schools focusing on creating a dynamic learning culture for their own staff. The central thesis is that successful teachers build professional capital, and this is a function of human capital, social capital and decisional capital. In other words, great teachers have great subject knowledge and pedagogical skills, actively collaborate with colleagues to raise both their own professional practice and practice across the school
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Favorite quote about politician's and the public's view of teachers:
Teachers were a big part of our lives, and many made a big impression on us - sometimes in a good way, but not always. These memories and feelings profoundly influence people's views about teaching today and what they want from it - to benefit their own children and to justify the taxes they pay for the children of other people...They also have an impact on those in high office who often design policies that try to recreate thei ...more
Teachers were a big part of our lives, and many made a big impression on us - sometimes in a good way, but not always. These memories and feelings profoundly influence people's views about teaching today and what they want from it - to benefit their own children and to justify the taxes they pay for the children of other people...They also have an impact on those in high office who often design policies that try to recreate thei ...more

As long as the title of the book suggests, it is primarily aimed at practitioners (and researchers) in education, particularly, in school education. However, the book goes beyond school premises and stereotyped school issues, let it be a classroom management question or parental involvement. Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School by two leading international experts in the field interpret a holistic issue of teaching and learning in simple words for the world readership. The
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For a book within the existing framework of the school systems, misters Alan and Michael do push against the edges. I wish they had stepped outside that system as well, but who knows, perhaps they will in the future?
https://helenaroth.com/professional-c... ...more
https://helenaroth.com/professional-c... ...more

Loved the pushes the authors make to professionalize the teaching profession. I made lots of connections to the gaps I’ve experienced as a teacher and educator. This book strengthened my commitment to build educators (including myself) who have a deep knowledge of pedagogy, have the skills to be responsive to every child’s needs, and participate in communities of educators who grow each other.

This group of authors seems to continue to recycle their own works with simple nuances in name changes. It is one thing to stand on the balcony and look into the work and an entirely different thing to have done the work any time recently. This edition or re-edit was frustrating in content and discussion in that they gloss over the root issues and the root challenges as if their new nomenclature and focus on same will move the needle around student achievement and fixing our schools. They talk a
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An excellent work on change leadership and the peculiar organizational dynamics of schools, Professional Capital provides a concise critique of contemporary education reform efforts that follow a business model and proposes a three-way lens for understanding what drives excellence in teaching. The combination of human capital, social capital and decisional capital is not simple to nurture, and no single silver bullet will get any school there ... except for one: trust. I've been thinking that th
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I heard one of the authors, Andy Hargreaves, speak last year, and he was insightful, witty, and fascinating - one of the best speakers I have ever heard on education. His book is similarly satisfying. Having been in the world of education for 8 years years now, and in some of the most dysfunctional school around, I've seen the best of intentions play out in idiotic, destructive, and sad ways. This book takes a refreshing global perspective on education - he's been researching what works in educa
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I thought this book started very slowly but I'm glad I stuck with it. The authors make a convincing argument for investing not just in individual teachers (e.g., the bright kids who go into TFA) but in teaching as a profession. They show how we need to build social networks that will support teachers as they move from executing current best practices to innovating next practices.
As the director of a university writing program, this book reminds me that my job is to help teachers develop their o ...more
As the director of a university writing program, this book reminds me that my job is to help teachers develop their o ...more

This is an important read for educators looking to create real change that is driven by... educators. Policy makers are showing us over and over again that the business capital model of education reform does not work. Building up professional capital by creating the conditions for educators to grow together is the way to real educational change.
I really enjoyed the concepts, ideas, and strategies discussed in the book. I struggled with some of the examples used by the authors as I have heard fro ...more
I really enjoyed the concepts, ideas, and strategies discussed in the book. I struggled with some of the examples used by the authors as I have heard fro ...more

I find it hard to review this book because it's hard to pinpoint what was so taxing about it to read. So much in here I totally agree with and when I decided to become a teacher it was in large part because I felt there was a disconnect between what "we" knew and how we were teaching. I loved that they referenced Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours essay (I talk about it all the time too) and I agree with the need to take action now, to stop talking and do. Maybe as a first year teacher I just found
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This is a solid book about the potential and challenges of teaching. While the word 'capital' is used in a cliched form throughout many discourses and disciplines, there is some currency to 'professional capital.'
Why do teachers succeed? Why do teachers fail? The answers to those questions are not often predictable or clearly revealed in the research literature. But by understanding the motivations and aspirations of teachers, then supportive environments and contexts can be constructed.
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Why do teachers succeed? Why do teachers fail? The answers to those questions are not often predictable or clearly revealed in the research literature. But by understanding the motivations and aspirations of teachers, then supportive environments and contexts can be constructed.
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One of the most inspiring books I have read about the power of teacher professional development and ground-up teacher movements to impact education in tremendous ways (as opposed to top-down initiatives that disempower teachers). Hargreaves and Fullan do an excellent job of providing international examples and it was a fascinating read. The case study of Ontario is particularly memorable and inspiring. As a teacher leader, this is one of the most important large-scale books I have read.

I'm kind of torn on whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. It's probably 3.5 in reality. I really wanted to like this book, but it just didn't do too much for me. I think the important pieces could really be communicated in the course of a long article. It felt like a lot of the book was filler just to have enough material to make a book. Also, there were more exclamation points in this book than anything else I've ever read, for reals.
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The authors present a brief historical perspective on education and professionalism. They lead the reader to the evidence that portrays a strengthening of the profession. At the end of the book they provide action steps. Education reform cannot be sustained by young in experienced teachers. Teachers of all ages must be involved.

May 25, 2013
Thalia
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
professional-reading
Valuable read. Highly recommended.

Jun 21, 2013
Karen James
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
professional-texts
Good; and humanizes the transformation process.

This is a very solid book about capacity building. The United States has so fucked up school reform that it might be two late to go back. If you still think there's hope, read this.
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