Description
Book SynopsisThe great pendulum of educational reform recently has begun its inexorable swing toward a new understanding of education. The thirty-year dominance of the authoritarian approach, complete with standardized assessments, distended bureaucracies and school consolidation based on the business model, appears to be over. Capped by the recent departure of the No Child Left behind Act and replaced with a new congressional authorization the Every Child Achieves Act we are witnessing a distinct move toward a more democratic model of education. This book places the tension between these two broadly defined archetypes in the context of the central themes of American education. These include the structure and organization of American schools, the struggle for diversity, curriculum and instruction, classroom discipline, moral education, testing and assessment, and the rights and responsibilities of teachers and students. By organizing these themes into a more understandable and relevant thematic c
Trade ReviewBy moving away from chronological and fragmented historical accounts to a thematic approach the authors provide a better understanding of the history of American education. This book describes men and women’s best intentions, failed policies, and social influences that profoundly affected education in the past. A must-read to understand social, economic, and cultural forces that influenced monumental transitions in schools to understand future trends in education. -- Marjorie Ringler, EdD, associate professor and doctoral program director, Department of Educational Leadership, College of Education, East Carolina University
Nobel Laureate, Bob Dylan, may have understated things in his 1964 song The Times They Are A Changin’, especially if applied to the state of public education in 2017! For those of us who are strong believers in the ‘common good’ of public education and its centrality to nation-building in the United States, these are troubled times. Such times call for an informed perspective and wisdom born of experience – and that it what we find in Drs. Donald and Jo Ann Parkersons’ book, The Struggle for American Public Education. Public education is, indeed, an important democratic struggle and for those fully engaged in the struggle, the Parkersons’ focus on “Ten Themes in Educational History” is an important contribution and an essential read!
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: The Authoritarian and Democratic Schools of Education Chapter 2: The Structure and Organization of American Schools Chapter 3: Consolidation and its Discontents: From Intimacy to Democracy Chapter 4: The Struggle for Diversity Chapter 5: The Curriculum: From Religious to Secular and Comprehensive Chapter 6: Instruction: From Memorization to Comprehension Chapter 7: Discipline in the Classroom: From Corporal Punishment to Preventative Techniques Chapter 8: Moral Education: From Virtue Centered to Cognitive Moral Development Chapter 9: Testing and Assessment: From Recitation to Standardized Assessment Chapter 10: Rights and Responsibilities of Teachers and Students Conclusion – The Complexity of Change in American Education References Index
