Examines material conditions and constraints embodied in educational structures that affect teachers' lives and practice, using nine feminist female high school teachers as informants to explore the power and powerlessness of teachers in classrooms. The paper details the constraints on teaching practice, noting how public schools and curriculum…

Highlights problems concerning the ways that researchers' assumptions about the world color their treatment of students and schools, outlining three ways students are commonly viewed (as inputs, aliens, and rebels) and recommending a more reflexive approach to research that is more sensitive to its own assumptions and limited uses. (SM)

In 1982, 1988, and 1993, the British government surveyed beginning teachers in schools. This article examines recent studies of beginning teachers, comparing results to the earlier research. Results indicate that primary teachers with undergraduate degrees felt more capable of teaching mathematics than one-year postgraduate trainees. Headteachers…

Sets the context for examining a series of articles that highlight California's work on beginning teacher induction, discussing restructuring to connect teaching and learning, knowledge of student learning, teacher performance expectations, standards of practice, the role of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, implications for…

Describes California's efforts to examine and shape beginning teacher induction policies in the California New Teacher Project and its successor, the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program. Key research findings related to support and assessment and the emerging policy directions resulting from this work are presented. (SM)

Describes several promising new teacher support strategies implemented by California universities and their district partners as part of the California New Teacher Project, noting resources expended to implement each strategy. The strategies are framed according to their programmatic and economic dimensions. Strategies that make the most sense…

Reports the essential findings of one phase of the assessment studies conducted during the California New Teacher Project, suggesting some implications from that study for the impending reform efforts. The paper concludes that California lacks a coherent, rigorous system of assessments guided by a clearly defined set of performance expectations.…

Describes a model used in Santa Cruz (California) for supporting and assessing beginning teachers that moves away from traditional inservice education and staff development into ongoing teacher development. The program's emphasis on collegial partnerships, personal inquiry and reflection, and ongoing self-assessment is described in relationship to…

Examines the debate between liberals and communitarians, offering a sympathetic reading of the communitarian critique of liberalism and discussing its implications for school reform. The article lays a foundation for a series of articles that focus on the community-individual nexus as it relates to educational theory and practice. (SM)

Explores the communitarian dimensions of feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman as expressed in her Utopian novel "Herland," arguing that, although cognizant of tensions between individual and community, Gilman's central point is the creation of community based on care and cooperation. Gilman's theory of education as related to "Herland" is examined.…

Discusses the liberal-communitarian debate from the perspective of moral philosophy, examining strengths and weaknesses of liberal and communitarian moral thought, noting implications for education, and arguing that reconciliation requires developing criteria for determining what conditions merit support to maintain and reproduce each culture's…

Examines fundamental tensions between the individual and community as manifested in the philosophy and practice of three progressive New York City Schools. The historical case studies of private progressive education demonstrate a tension between liberal and communitarian dimensions of progressive education, a tension implicit in progressive…

Connects contemporary communitarian ideas to the agenda of the 19th-century populist movement. The populist educational agenda (the agrarian revolt and Farmers' Alliance) provides historical examples of the implementation of communitarian educational theory. The populist movement as an example of communitarianism highlights an instance of a…

Using Barbara Kingsolver's novel "Animal Dreams" and critical readings, the paper explores relationships between community, sense of place, and construction of meanings, noting the importance of autobiography in connecting with community and place in constructing landscapes and personal meaning and advocating for education that does not engender…

Discusses community and morality in an international context, recommending a transnational ethic grounded in international custom and agreement and noting that the Nuremberg Obligation provides a foundation for such an ethic. The paper maintains that this ethic provides the moral foundation for a civic education cognizant of global…