Shirley Greves
John I. Goodlad and Timothy J. McMannon (Editors)
The Teaching Career
New York : Teachers College Press, 2004
224 pgs.
ISBN 0-8077-4453-0 (paperback)
How can we attract quality students to the profession of teaching? How can we support them in their first years of teaching to stem the flow of attrition after the first three to five years? How can we promote a climate of ongoing professional development that fosters a pride in teachers' work, thus facilitating the retention of effective teachers and ultimately the renewal of schools? The Teaching Career (2004), edited by John Goodlad and Timothy McMannon, explores these questions in a series of chapters, each written by notable scholars and leaders in the field of education, such as John Goodlad, Roger Soder, Sharon Feiman-Nemser, and Adam Urbanski. The editors attempt to unify the chapters through introductory commentary for each one.
Answering the above questions in the current sociopolitical climate of schooling and education reform becomes imperative, particularly in light of the recent SESA legislation commonly known as the “No Child Left Behind” Act. Accountability through “highly qualified” teachers and student performance on standardized tests demands that we select, retain, and sustain teachers who must work within this context. The main premise, then, of The Teaching Career is that collaboration among Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education (SCDEs); Colleges of Arts and Sciences; K-12 schools; and teachers' unions can promote a climate of professional development that prepares, attracts, retains, and sustains effective teachers. In turn, the authors present the hope that collaboration and professional development hold the promise of educational reform that, within this current climate, does not lose sight of what is really beneficial for students in this current climate. Teacher educators, K-12 administrators, and teacher union leaders would benefit the most from reading this book, especially the chapters that focus on making such collaboration work.
As a working model of such collaboration, the Strengthening and Sustaining Teachers (SST) initiative figures prominently throughout several chapters. This initiative brought together national education leaders and two school districts (one in Portland , Maine ; the other in Seattle , Washington ) to initiate school renewal. Since this model is central to the book's premise, the reader would benefit from a description of the initiative at the beginning of the book. For example, moving Chapter 8, in which Jean Sahling and Betty Lou Whitford describe the successes and pitfalls at the beginning stages of the initiative, to the opening chapter would prepare the reader for other references to SST and serve as a model for other initiatives.
While collaboration and partnerships among SCDEs and K-12 schools have long been advocated for educational renewal, what is new in the SST initiative is the promotion of a role for teachers' unions within these partnerships. Readers will find two chapters of particular interest for this inclusion. In Chapter 3, Richard Barnes describes the tensions and ultimate strong collaboration between Portland Public Schools and the Portland Education Association. Thomas Gillett and Adam Urbanski, in Chapter 7, contend that unions need to become “ agents” of reform (p. 142), collaborating with other stakeholders in public education to promote renewal and professional development for teachers and schools. These chapters serve as useful guides for those seeking renewal through collaboration.
Two other chapters, which this reader found particularly interesting, also serve as useful guides in fostering professional development. Sheldon Berman, long-term Superintendent of Hudson Public School District, advocates in Chapter 6 that successful recruitment, induction, and retention are possible if guided by the district's mission and vision. In Chapter 5, Daniel Katz and Sharon Feiman-Nemser describe research from induction programs, finding that mentoring is the most beneficial factor in addressing the needs of new teachers and that the best mentoring exists in climates where mentoring is embedded in the school's culture.
The above chapters seem of the most practical value for stakeholders in the professional development of new and inservice teachers as well as renewal of education. The other four chapters, while interesting to read, lend nothing to this discussion other than presenting the culture and context in which renewal attempts to occur. The opening and closing chapters frame the others. Roger Soder opens with his contention that preservice teachers' belief that they will be able to function independently is fictional, and he outlines six constraining relationships they will find within their teaching context. Concluding the book, Richard Wiseniewski attempts to predict the future of education, with its best hope lying in the recruitment of people for whom teaching is a calling, reiterating Soder's conclusion that many go into teaching in spite of the constraints because of their perceived moral responsibility to teach.
John Goodlad rehashes in Chapter 2 much of what he has stated elsewhere—the need for reform in teacher education through collaboration, the sociopolitical cultures of the university that make renewal difficult, and the alignment of reform with democratic principles. A reviewer of his manuscript commented that “this message is too obvious to warrant elaboration” (p. 19). I tend to agree; however, the editors noted that this was “as silly a statement as we have heard in a long time” (p. 19). Wouldn't we all like to tell our reviewers that? In Chapter 4, Paul E. Heckman and Corinne Mantle-Bromley also explain how cultures of schools and schools of education make it difficult for the renewal of schooling to occur.
All of the chapters are readable and thought-provoking. However, the organization of the book is not cohesive. Perhaps the chapters outlining the context and culture in which renewal must take place could be in the first part, setting up the practical application of how it can occur through the model of the SST initiative. It seems to this reader, however, that those interested in renewal are already well acquainted with the context and would benefit most from the practical application chapters.
Renewal of education has long been a topic of educational discourse as is the advocacy of collaboration and partnerships among schools, teacher preparation, and the disciplines in reform. As noted previously, what is new in this book is the promotion of the role of teachers unions within these partnerships. In addition, the extensive descriptions of the partnerships with the concrete examples of initiatives that work in real schools provide hope for the reader that renewal of schools for the benefit of students is possible.