Confessions of a White Educator: Stories in Search of Justice and Diversity

Winner of the 2000 Outstanding Book Award presented by the American Educational Research Association Winner of the 2001 American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Award Honorable Mention, 2000 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards Subtractive Schooling provides a framework for understanding the patterns of immigrant achievement and U.S.-born underachievement frequently noted in the literature and observed by the author in her ethnographic account of regular-track youth attending a comprehensive, virtually all-Mexican, inner-city high school in Houston. Valenzuela argues that schools subtract resources from youth in two major ways: firstly by dismissing their definition of education and secondly, through assimilationist policies and practices that minimize their culture and language. A key consequence is the erosion of students' social capital evident in the absence of academically oriented networks among acculturated, U.S.-born youth.

In Confessions of a School Reformer, eminent historian of education Larry Cuban reflects on nearly a century of education reforms and his experiences with them as a student, educator, and administrator. Cuban begins his own story in the 1930s, when he entered first grade at a Pittsburgh public school, the youngest son of Russian immigrants who placed great stock in the promises of education. With a keen historian's eye, Cuban expands his personal narrative to analyze the overlapping social, political, and economic movements that have attempted to influence public schooling in the United States since the beginning of the twentieth century. He documents how education both has and has not been altered by the efforts of the Progressive Era of the first half of the twentieth century, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s through the 1970s, and the standards-based school reform movement of the 1980s through today. Cuban points out how these dissimilar movements nevertheless shared a belief that school change could promote student success and also forge a path toward a stronger economy and a more equitable society. He relates the triumphs of these school reform efforts as well as more modest successes and unintended outcomes. Interwoven with Cuban's evaluations and remembrances are his "confessions," in which he accounts for the beliefs he held and later rejected, as well as mistakes and areas of weakness that he has found in his own ideology. Ultimately, Cuban remarks with a tempered optimism on what schools can and cannot do in American democracy.

Take a peek! What kinds of things really happen inside an elementary school? The stories in Confessions of an Elementary School Principal will make you laugh. A few may make you cry. Other stories will provide insight into children and teaching. Many will give you pause and something to ponder. Stories span the career of Meril Smith. He is one of the lucky people who never went to work. He loved almost every ten-hour day he spent with students, teachers, and parents. All the stories are true. Only some of the names in the stories have been changed to "protect the guilty."

Written by Matthew Reed, the formerly anonymous author of Inside Higher Ed's most popular blog, Confessions of a Community College Dean, this book offers keen insights, a frank discussion, and suggested solutions for the many issues that are unique to community college administration. In Confessions of a Community College Administrator Reed describes the current landscape of community college leadership and addresses some of the fundamental questions that face community colleges. Who does a community college actually serve? How do administrators really make budget decisions? Where do the roots of the "permanent crisis" in higher education lie? How are full-time and adjunct faculty best balanced? Throughout the book, Reed offers guidance and encouragement for the next generation of community college leaders. He examines a set of proposed solutions from outside academia, then turns to other solutions emerging from inside the community college world that also show potential for success. Confessions of a Community College Administrator is filled with realistic, and ultimately hopeful, advice on how to step back from the day-to-day administrative struggles and gain some perspective on the larger picture. Reed offers administrators useful and productive directions for constructive change.

This book takes you on a fun journey through the eyes of an elementary school teacher. The many daily laughs and challenges that the everyday teacher goes through may go unnoticed, until now. From classroom cursing, parent conferences, and even dealing with the "B" word (bullying), the author takes you on a laugh-out-loud look at teachers today and the struggles and joys that the classroom can bring. It brings a sincere amount of appreciation for all that teachers do while giving everyone a much needed laugh at the end of their work day.

In liberal, democratic and capitalist societies today, we are increasingly invited to disclose our innermost thoughts to others. We are asked to turn our gaze inwards, scrutinizing ourselves, our behaviours and beliefs, while talking and writing about ourselves in these terms. This form of disclosure of the self resonates with older forms of church confession, and is now widely seen in practices of education in new ways in nurseries, schools, colleges, universities, workplaces and the wider policy arena. This book brings together international scholars and researchers inspired by the work of Michel Foucault, to explore in detail what happens when these practices of confession become part of our lives and ways of being in education. The authors argue that they are not neutral, but political and powerful in their effects in shaping and governing people; they examine confession as discursive and contemporary practice so as to provoke critical thought. International in scope and pioneering in the detail of its scrutiny of such practices, this book extends contemporary understanding of the exercise of power and politics of confessional practices in education and learning, and offers an alternative way of thinking of them. The book will be of value to educational practitioners, scholars, researchers and students, interested in the politics of their own practices.