The Moral Life of Schools - Paperback

by Philip W. Jackson (Author), Robert E. Boostrom (Author), David T. Hansen (Author)

"Rarely have I come across a book that so quickly provoked me to re-examine my own classroom behavior. There is no place to hide in this careful scrutiny of the teacher as crucial player in the daily morality tale that becomes the story of school life."
-- Vivian Gussin Paley, teacher, University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

This book takes the reader on an eye-opening journey through a variety of elementary and high school classrooms, highlighting the moral significance of all that transpires there. Drawing on the results of a two-and-a-half year study, the authors examine the ways in which moral considerations permeate the everyday life of classrooms. In addition to providing teachers and teacher educators with a new framework for looking at and thinking about the moral dimensions of schooling, the authors also offer specific suggestions about how to look at classroom events from a moral perspective.

Contents

One. Looking for the Moral: An Observer's Guide

Two. Becoming Aware of Moral Complexity Within a School Setting: Four Sets of Observations

Three. Facing Moral Ambiguity and Tension: Four More Sets of Observations

Four. Cultivating Expressive Awareness in Schools and Classrooms

Postscript: Where Might One Go from Here?

Philip W. Jackson is the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor of Education and Psychology and a member of the Committee on Ideas and Methods at the University of Chicago.

Robert E. Boostrom is a senior research associate of the Benton Center for Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Chicago.

David T. Hansen is an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Front Jacket

Jackson, Boostrom, and Hansen capture the ways in which classroom communities shape the hearts and minds of students and teachers alike in as full-bodied a fashion as Jackson's Life in Classrooms first recorded the pulse and passions of school life. The Moral Life of Schools is powerful reading for anyone concerned with the aims of education, with the inner lives of teachers and children, and with the most important foundations of our society-- our ways of learning to live together.--Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of education, Teachers College, Columbia University

Author Biography

PHILIP W. JACKSON is the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor of Education and Psychology and a member of the Committee on Ideas and Methods at the University of Chicago. ROBERT E. BOOSTROM is assistant professor of education in the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Southern Indiana. DAVID T. HANSEN is an associate professor of curriculum and instruction in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago.