This study posits that global change is being driven mainly by financial forces, new patterns of economic growth and market ideology. It then goes on to examine the forces opposing such globalizing processes, such as religious and ethnic/social movements throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Winner of the 1998 American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Titles This book challenges common assumptions about the efficacy of teacher collaboration, empowerment, and professional development to improve the educational experiences of low-achieving African American students without engaging the political and ideological contexts in which reforms take place. Written in a clear, engaging style, the book tells the story of two restructuring junior high schools in a single district, and how teachers' ideologies and race, class, and power contradictions in the schools, school district, and city shaped outcomes. Although the book is a critique of restructuring, powerful portraits of teachers who create culturally responsive and empowering educational experiences demonstrate the potential to reform educational practices and policies for African American students and suggest a direction for transforming schools.

Make good decisions about your own restructuring effort by seeing what has and what hasn't worked in other schools.

Explores the intersection of two central issues in American education today: school reform through restructuring and alienation from school of many children of color. A tough look at the impact of teachers' and administrators' beliefs and practices.

This new book presents the findings of a five-year, federally funded study that examined the connection between school restructuring and student achievement. Investigating twenty-four elementary and secondary schools from twenty-two districts across the country, the researchers found that restructuring efforts fail when there is too much focus on structure and technique and not enough attention paid to the intellectual quality of student and teacher work and to the vitality of the school community. Using a wealth of examples, the authors provide a vivid picture of the conditions under which innovations in a school's organization contribute to student achievement - extending learning beyond rote memorization of isolated facts to thinking, disciplined understanding, and complex communication.

This book vividly portrays the experiences of five secondary teachers who were involved in a school restructuring initiative that focused on interdisciplinary curriculum development, team teaching, and block scheduling. Though much has been written during the past decade concerning the need for fundamental restructuring of American schools, the track record in accomplishing change is extremely weak. One reason for this is the lack of understanding of what change means from the point of view of teachers, who are both the objects and subjects of change efforts. The year the authors spent with the teachers resulted in a deeper understanding of the phenomenology of change experiences that can be used to develop more fruitful, empowering, and teacher sensitive strategies. The story of the change experience is presented through five interlocking and mutually reinforcing themes that dominated the teachers' experience and understanding: uncertainty; intensification; lack of administrative leadership; subject allegiance versus team loyalty; and craft pride, caring, and moral purpose.