Designed for introductory courses in teacher training, this text covers aspects of American education: the realities of teaching; the operation of schools; the fundamentals underlying teaching and schooling; and the debated issues.

Ever since its first edition, education professors have relied on the Sadkers for their comprehensive coverage of all aspects of American education. Teachers, Schools, and Society provides in-depth coverage of the foundations of education (history, philosophy, governance, and law) while also presenting a clear overview of what it means to be a teacher today, and including commentary on current critical topics. Most importantly, a multicultural/diversity-oriented approach is taken in every chapter to provide the most integrated and thorough coverage of diversity in any introduction to education textbook.Written in an informal and highly engaging style that appeals to students, Teachers, Schools, and Society is punctuated throughout with interesting features. The pedagogical system is expanded and refined in the sixth edition to provide extensive student support. New to the text is an interactive element that integrates reflection into all features and that links students to the Online Learning Center to perform interactive activities and to find additional resources.Combine comprehensive coverage; an engaging, interactive pedagogical system; and unsurpassable integrated coverage of diversity with an excellent author team, detailed appendices, and a complete supplements package, and you have an extraordinary resource for introductory coverage of American education.

"If you think that Teachers, Schools, and Society: A Brief Introduction to Education was written to introduce you to the world of teaching, you are only half right. This book also reflects our excitement about a life in the classroom and is intended to spark your own fascination about working with children. We wrote this book to share with you the joys and the challenges we feel about teaching, as well as the importance of fairness and justice in school and society. With this fifth edition, our goals are unchanged. We work hard to provide you with information that is both current and concise, and we work even harder to create an engaging book- one that will give you a sense of the wonderful possibilities found in a career in the classroom. The primary intent of Teachers, Schools, and Society is to provide a broad yet precise exposure to the realities of teaching and the role of education in our society. The text will help you answer important questions such as: Do I want to become a teacher? How do I become the best teacher possible? What should a professional in the field of education know? How are schools and teaching changing? To help you answer those questions, we offer a panoramic, diverse, and (we hope) stimulating view of education. The text views education from several vantage points. In Part I, "Teachers and Students," we present the world of schools, teachers, and students from the teacher's side of the desk. Part II, "Foundations," examines the broad forces-historical, philosophical, financial, and legal-that shape the underpinning of our educational system. In Part III, "Schools and Classrooms," we explore the purposes of schools, daily life in and beyond school, and the obvious (and not so obvious) curriculum taught in school. In this last section, we also provide an overview and analysis of the reform movement and the many curricular changes that are now so much a part of America's schools. We conclude the text with a variety of effective teaching strategies and practical suggestions to make your first year in the classroom a success"--

A compelling and thoroughly readable account of two middle schools—one urban and one suburban—that attempt to build communities which will foster student growth and learning. This book shatters prevailing beliefs and furthers our understanding of the ways in which teachers’ relationships impact their work and their lives in schools. “This is no once-over-lightly piece of research. . . . [Joel Westheimer] leaves in tatters the tapestry of rhetoric that has been woven by reformers around the idea that all teacher communities are alike and that building them requires only a few hardy souls with moxie and determination.” —From the Foreword by Larry Cuban, Stanford University “Westheimer’s account is at once passionate and analytic, critical and empathic. It is exactly the kind of rendering of schools we need for our own democratic dialogue as scholars.” —Suzanne M. Wilson, Michigan State University “Timely and informative. . . . This is an important book for both teachers and policy makers.” —Nel Noddings, Stanford University “Joel Westheimer takes us beyond the rhetoric of community as something necessarily sunny and succulent, revealing both the conceptual limits and the daily difficulties of community-building as a strategy for reform. . . . If we are propelled to act, [his] charting of this tricky terrain will be a useful map, an essential guide to survival.” —William Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago

Combining the brevity of a streamlined Introduction to Education text with the support package of a much more expensive book, the brief edition of Teachers, Schools, and Society encourages experienced instructors to explore their own creativity while ensuring that newer faculty can teach the course with confidence. David Sadker's and Karen Zittleman's lively writing style captures the joys and challenges of teaching. The text stresses the importance of fairness and justice in school and society, focuses on the most crucial topic areas, and integrates the most current issues in education. In addition, the wealth of activities included--from online video observations to portfolio-building exercises--offers a broad range of ways to introduce students to the teaching profession.

This widely used text has been expanded to include the most important issues in contemporary schooling, including: New end-of-chapter sections for Further Reading. New references added to the useful Additional Resources section. School and Society, Fifth Edition uses realistic case studies, dialogues, and open-ended questions designed to stimulate thinking about problems related to school and society, including curriculum reform, social justice, and competing forms of research. Written in a style that speaks directly to today’s educator, this book tackles such crucial questions as: Do schools socialize students to become productive workers? • Does schooling reproduce social class and pass on ethnic and gender biases? • Can a teacher avoid passing on dominant social and cultural values? • What besides subjects do students really learn in schools? School and Societyis one of the five books in the highly regarded Teachers College PressThinking About Education Series, now in its Fifth Edition. All of the books in this series are designed to help pre- and in-service teachers bridge the gap between theory and practice. Praise for Previous Editions! “I have been surprised and pleased by the relevance of this particular book to the lives and work of my beginning teachers.” —Teaching Education “[This series] does a masterful job of bringing together the basic issues and teaching methods that should frame social and philosophical foundations curricula.” —Educational Theory Walter Feinbergis Professor of Educational Policy Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Jonas F. Soltisis William Heard Kilpatrick Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.