Critical Issues in Education: An Anthology of Readings

Eugene Provenzo, a nationally recognized scholar in the social and cultural foundations of education, has edited this collection of significant readings relevant to western traditions of education. Focusing on modern and postmodern ideas, Critical Issues in Education: An Anthology of Readings includes selections from scholars of education ranging from John Dewey and William James to important contemporary writers such as bell hooks, Sonia Nieto, and Henry Giroux. Key Features: Provides strong introductory materials: The editor has developed this as a course text and therefore provides original contributions to contextualize and shape the selections into a meaningful whole. He offers commentary and analysis throughout in the form of original essays, head notes, and questions that help students engage with the anthologized readings. Follows a comprehensive development of themes: A compilation of many of the most significant readings about education in the west, the book is organized into seven thematic units-The Aims of Education; Society and Education; Compulsory Education and the Transmission of Culture; Sexuality and Education; Race; Multiculturalism, and Education; Social Class and Education; and Technology and Education. Stimulates critical thinking: The editor includes readings that are important, provocative, and inherently interesting, and that encourage readers to critically reflect on the meaning of education and schooling in American culture. In addition, discussion questions for each of the eight thematic units facilitate classroom discussion. Intended Audience: This is an ideal supplementary text for undergraduate and graduate courses on the foundations of education such as Foundations of Education; Historical Foundations of Education; Philosophical Foundations of Education; and Issues in Education. It will also be a welcome addition to individual scholars' bookshelves.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction: Educational Thought in Western Culture PROLOGUE Introduction to Prologue “Orientation” (1934) - George S. Counts “The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World” (1994) - Vaclav Havel PART I: THE AIMS OF EDUCATION Introduction to Part I “My Pedagogic Creed” (1897) - John Dewey Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education (1918) - National Education Association “A Morally Defensible Mission for Schools in the 21st Century” (1997) - Nel Noddings PART II: SOCIETY AND EDUCATION Introduction to Part II Selection from Notes on the State of Virginia (1781) - Thomas Jefferson On The Mode Of Education Proper In A Republic (1786) - Benjamin Rush Selections from Report No. 12 of the Massachusetts School Board (1848) - Horace Mann Selection from Dare the Schools Build a New Social Order (1932) - George S. Counts PART III: COMPULSORY SCHOOLING, EDUCATION, AND THE TRANSMISSION OF CULTURE Introduction to Part IIII Massachusetts Compulsory School Law (1852) - General Court of Massachusetts Selection from Compulsory Mis-Education (1964) - Paul Goodman “Vulnerability in Education,” (1966) - Jules Henry “The Banking Model of Education” (1970) - Paulo Freire Selection from Deschooling Society (1970) - Ivan Illich PART IV: SEXUALITY AND EDUCATION Introduction to Part IV Selection from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) - Mary Wollstonecraft The Seneca Falls Declaration (1848) - Elizabeth Cady Stanton Equal Right Amendment (1921) - Alice Paul Title IX (1972) - Congress of the United States “The Absent Presence: Patriarchy, Capitalism, And The Nature of Teacher Work” (1987) - Patti Lather “A Queer Youth” (1996) - Paul H. Cottell, Jr. “How and Why Boys Under-Achieve” (2000) - Wendy Bradford, Colin Noble, and Ted Wragg PART V: RACE, MULTICULTURALISM, AND EDUCATION Introduction to Part V Laws Prohibiting the Education of Slaves (1830-1832) - General Assembly of the State of North Carolina; General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia; and the General Assembly of Alabama "Industrial Education for the Negro” (1903) - Booker T. Washington The Talented Tenth (1903) - W. E. B. Du Bois A Talk to Teachers (1963) - James Baldwin “Education for All Handicapped Children” (1975) - Congress of the United States of America “Border Pedagogy in the Age of Postmodernism” (1988) - Henry Giroux PART VI: SOCIAL CLASS AND EDUCATION Introduction to Part VI Selection from Pygmalion in the Classroom (1968) - Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” (1980) - Jean Anyon “Crossing Class Boundaries” (2000) - bell hooks PART VII: TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION Introduction to Part VII Augmenting Human Intellect (1962) - Douglas Engelbart How Computers Contribute to the Ecological Crisis (1990) - C. A. Bowers The Field: Knowledge in Computerized Societies (1979) - Jean-François Lyotard

About the Author :
Gene Provenzo is one of the nation’s leading scholars in the foundations of education. He holds the rank of full professor at the University of Miami. He has won numerous awards throughout his career in both teaching and research and sits on many editorial boards. He has authored over ten books and has contributed chapters to many more. He has authored scores of articles in a wide range of areas in education. His recent projects include Teaching, Learning, and Schooling (Allyn & Bacon, 2002), a critically-oriented introduction to the foundations of education textbook, and the forthcoming Readings in Educational Thought (SAGE, 2005).

Review :
“The text is flexible for a variety of approaches in a number of different classes and maintains a comprehensive stance toward the range of historical, contemporary, and modern educational thought.” "Found it stimulating and relevant."