“The Teaching Career”,
edited by John I. Goodlad & Timothy
J. McMannon
reviewed by Merri Rosenberg
Here’s something
that should be on the required summer reading lists for principals,
school board members, education professors, and anyone else
who has professional responsibility for training, recruiting
and retaining teachers.
This book, which is
part of the Teachers College series on school reform, addresses
the compelling topic of what happens (or, more usually, what
doesn’t happen)
with new teachers. With 55 per cent of teachers leaving the
profession within the first five years, clearly there’s
room for improvement.
As the text states (p.
xi), “Attracting
young people to teaching is not enough to ensure that all classrooms
in our nation’s schools are staffed by caring, qualified
and capable teachers.”
Far from it. Unless
these new teachers are properly supported once they are launched
into classrooms of their own, it’s unlikely that those
high rates of turnover are likely to be changed any time
soon.
Some of the problems
identified here include the disconnect between university
and college teacher preparation programs from what really
happens in the classroom; the lack of follow-through on mentoring
programs, even the pursuit of professional development opportunities
that have more to do with a teacher’s personal interests
than the needs of his students.
The book focuses on
the 1999 Strengthening and Sustaining Teachers Initiative,
a five-year project that has been coordinated by the National
Commission on Teaching and America’s Future; The Teacher
Union Reform Network, The Institute for Educational Inquiry,
Bank Street College and the University of Washington. The
program was developed to build support systems for teachers
in Portland, Maine; Albuquerque, New Mexico and Seattle,
Washington, whose teachers and schools provide the data and
anecdotes contained here.
The thesis is that all
educational institutions need to build new relationships
among previously separated stakeholders—meaning that the public schools, the universities,
the unions, professional organizations, even school boards,
have to work together on a congruent agenda to ensure the success
of both teachers and students. One suggestion would be an expansion
of “teaching schools,” analogous to academic “teaching
hospitals”, where new teachers could learn from experienced
practitioners so that ultimately students benefit. New teachers
in particular need to see themselves, and be seen by others,
as “learners,” to be more effective in the classroom.
For the reality is that
teachers can’t simply
close their classroom doors and teach students according to
their own carefully developed pedagogical philosophy. Between
state standards, federal mandates, high stakes testing, budget
constraints and other factors that influence what goes on in
schools, teachers inevitably have to work with colleagues,
principals, superintendents, school board members, and even
parents.
As the authors argue,
in a discussion of partner (or laboratory) schools, “Students who historically have
been poorly served by our nation’s schools will not be
better served by educators doing the same, but more so and
better. Students will be better served when we uncover the
beliefs and assumptions that are getting in our way of reaching
them. There is little evidence that school-university partnerships
in general are promoting second-order change regarding teaching
and learning–challenging deeply held beliefs and assumptions
so that powerful new approaches to schooling arise.” (PP81-82)
Of course, the news is not all bleak.
“This nation is blessed with a core of competent,
well-qualified, dedicated, caring teachers whose presence goes
far toward sustaining what arguably is the most stable institution
in our changing, dynamic society.” (P.21)
So here’s that summer assignment: read this,
and come back ready to implement, or at least discuss, some
of these authors’ compelling arguments in September,
so that real change can begin to take place.#
