Description
Book SynopsisTeachers at the Table is based on the simple premise that policy matters in education and teachers matter to policy. Policy reflects and shapes society's beliefs about schools, teachers, children, learning, and society, as well as the power structures embedded in our communities and decision-making processes. If policy is a public response to perceived social problems, it matters who is at the table when the problems are defined, the agendas set, and the policy itself designed. Although teachers may be central to the implementation of education policy, they are marginal to the design of it, especially around issues of teaching and learning. In short, teachers are not at the table. This is important because the lack of teacher voice in educational policymaking disconnects the goals and design of education policy from the actual lived challenges of implementing it.
This book draws on a qualitative case study with both practicing and pre-service teachers involved i
Trade ReviewTimely, engaging, and meticulously researched, Teachers at the Table: Voice, Agency, and Advocacy in Educational Policymaking offers invaluable insight into the institutional dynamics that inhibit teacher involvement in educational policy design. At the same time, it foregrounds the stories of teachers who challenge these dynamics to engage in policymaking in a variety of ways. An essential text for all teachers and teacher educators. -- May Hara, Assistant Professor of Teacher Education
Good is one of a handful of authors to study education policy from the perspective of teachers' essential voice and expertise. This important book provides a compelling argument for deeply engaging teachers at every level of instructional policymaking. It is a critical read at a time when teachers' legitimate rights to organize for better policy and conditions are under siege. -- Patricia Burch, associate professor of education
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Section One: Setting the Table
Chapter One: The problem with teachers and educational policy
Chapter Two: Teachers in Embedded Contexts
Section Two: The Trouble with Getting to the Table
Chapter Three: The Structure of Teachers’ Work
Chapter Four: Power and Decision Making in Public Schooling
Chapter Five: Teachers’ professional status
Section Three: When Teachers Are at the Table
Chapter Six: Capacity and Will
Chapter Seven: Formal Structures
Conclusion: The Why and How of Teacher Voices at the Table
Appendix: National and state surveys of teachers
References
About the Author
