City Teachers: Teaching and School Reform in Historical Perspective

by Kate Rousmaniere

Does school reform make better schools? City Teaching and School Reform in Historical Perspective vividly recreates teachers’ work in urban (New York City) schools in a period of intense school reform (the 1920s), as teachers and schools coped with an ever-larger and diverse student body. Rousmaniere depicts how New York City teachers experienced citywide reform initiatives in their already stressful workday, and how they resisted, undermined, and adapted school reform policy. Drawing on extensive interviews with teachers of an earlier generation, Rousmaniere lets readers see the complexity of teachers’ work, their problems with reform implementation, and the conditions they believed were necessary for real change. This is an important book because it raises questions about teachers’ historical work culture and the effects of teachers’ working conditions. It will be invaluable reading in graduate courses in the history of education, urban education, and teacher education and for professors, researchers, and general readers in these fields. "City Teachers is an evocative portrait of teachers at wor k... , caught in a bureaucratic maze, struggling to ply their craft during an era of expansion and dramatic social change. City Teachers will interest anyone curious about the role of teachers in urban school reform."
— William J. Reese , University of Wisconsin–Madison
"Finally, we have a book that reveals the consequences of disrespect for tha t . . . profession called teaching, giving us new lenses through which to understand the historic dilemmas of teaching and the follies of traditional attempts to reform it."
— Barbara Finkelstein , University of Maryland

Genres: Education

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 1997

Reviews

[Becky Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for a class and loved it so much I wanted to put it on here. If you want to understand why teachers are having such a hard time, this will give you some great background 👍

[AJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice historical work regarding (mostly) women teachers in New York City during the early 20th century.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moral of this story: plus ca change . . .