The Moral Life of Schools

"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

Table of Contents:
Looking for the Moral: An Observer's Guide. Becoming Aware of Moral Complexity Within a School Setting: Four Sets of Observations. Facing Moral Ambiguity and Tension: Four More Sets of Observations. Cultivating Expressive Awareness in Schools and Classrooms. Postscript: Where Might One Go from Here?

About the Author :
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.

Review :
"This book is one of the very best ethnographic descriptions of interactive processes in the classroom I have ever read. . .no more final exams for teacher students without giving them this oeuvre as compulsory reading." (Educational Researcher) "Convincingly argues that morality in school has less to do with object lessons than with nuance. . .Who we are, this invaluable book reminds us, imbues our teaching, which is why good teaching?that is moral teaching?must begin with self-scrutiny." (Teacher Magazine) "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) "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) "Jackson, Boostrom, and Hansen guide the reader engagingly into largely uncharted territory. The moral impact of schooling has traditionally been tackled by philosophers, absent the rich descriptions of classroom life offered here. This well-justified departure from traditional empirical research brings essential new insights about the culture of schools and classrooms." (Jeannie Oakes, professor, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles)