Research

My research focus has varied over the last 20 years, but it is consistently concerned with recapturing broader and richer understandings of curricula and teaching while recognizing the social and political terrain of schooling. I began with an emphasis on examining the philosophical (explanatory and ethical) underpinnings of radical educational theory (see below, Capitalist Schools: Explanation and Ethics in Radical Studies of Schooling). I moved on to construct and explore a program of teacher education that recognized the importance of teacher reflection and the social and political contexts of schooling (see below, Teacher Education and the Social Conditions of Schooling). In conjunction with my focus on teacher education, I undertook with Professor Ken Zeichner the creation of a book series that explored teacher reflection on the social conditions of schooling (see Reflective Teaching and Culture and Teaching). I then examined available justifications for distinct curricular frameworks (see Curriculum in Conflict). Recently I completed an edited book and am currently working on a manuscript that explore the terrain of reason and emotion in teaching and schooling (see Love and Despair in Teaching and Teaching, Loving, and Learning). I am also working on a manuscript that documents and discusses the inception and practice of an alternative, community-based, teacher education program, the Roaring Fork Teacher Education Program in Woody Creek, Colorado.

Capitalist Schools: Explanation and Ethics in Radical Studies of Schooling, (New York: Routledge, 1988), 205 pp. In this work I examine the explanatory capacity of radical (neo-Marxist) explanations of public schooling and the ethical adequacy of their critiques and prescriptions. I maintain that radicals offer facile functional explanations, and I offer a way to enhance functional explanatory claims. I also argue that the radical framework relies on an ethic of virtue, rather than duty, and suggest further attention be paid to the radical ethical framework.

Teacher Education and the Social Conditions of Schooling, - with Kenneth Zeichner (New York: Routledge, 1991), 293 pp. Looking at the history of teacher education in the US we characterize four distinct reform movements: academic; social efficiency; developmentalist and social reconstructionist. We then proceed to argue for and further develop a social reconstructionist reform agenda maintaining that prospective teachers should be encouraged to articulate and justify their educational aims, and understand the power of the social and political contexts of schooling. We outline a research agenda that would be grounded in teachers' issues and concerns and we also develop the programmatic implications of our social reconstructionist reform agenda.

Reflective Teaching: An Introduction - with Ken Zeichner (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers, 1996), 92 pp. In this text we provide a critical summary of the reflective teaching literature and elaborate a conception of reflective practice that is rooted in the work of John Dewey and Donald Schon. We delineate the conceptual bases of this conception of teacher reflection and identify the various practices associated with it.

Culture and Teaching - with Ken Zeichner (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers, 1996), 102 pp. When we teach our cultural assumptions interact with students' cultural backgrounds. When this occurs many intriguing and important issues arise. We provide four distinct teaching case studies that capture dilemmas of teaching students from distinct cultures and provide a range of reader responses to these issues. Once we have explored these issues, we then present three prevalent public views about the role of culture in teaching: conservative, radical-multicultural, and progressive public arguments. Finally we articulate our view of culture, teaching and schooling.

Curriculum in Conflict: Social Visions, Educational Agendas, and Progressive School Reform - with Landon Beyer (New York City: Teachers College Press, 1996), 242 pp. Past and present public school curricula are part of larger social and political visions. Distinct curricula represent various conceptions of the 'good life'. In this work we examine the varieties of curricular orientations underscoring their political, social and philosophical assumptions. We look at curricula emanating from conservative, liberal, postmodern, and radical social visions and argue for a more democratically inclined progressive approach.

Teaching, Loving, and Learning - an edited work with Jim Garrison (New York: Routledge Falmer, 2004), 213pp. In this collection of essays, ten prominent educational authors offer their understandings of the role of emotion in teaching and teacher education. Attempts are made to elaborate the various ways in which our thinking and feeling combine in teaching, and authors draw from the realms of traditional philosophy, post-modern discourse, and eastern spiritual sources to inform this discussion.

Love and Despair in Teaching: Thinking and Feeling in Educational Settings (manuscript under revision). When we teach we employ our thoughts and emotions. Teaching is an endeavor that combines thinking and feeling. When we learn we also think and feel. Academic scholarship on teaching and learning recognizes the cognitive dimensions and only rarely explores the affective terrain. In this work I maintain that conceptions of love (romantic, attentive, and enlarged) enable us to understand further the terrain of teaching and especially the despair and burnout that some teachers experience. I attempt to describe and evoke the sense of these loves in teaching along with the despair that seems to be a part of many teachers' lives. Recognizing the stigma attached to 'love discussions,' I also defend the language of love in teaching and education.

Riding the Ruddy Currents: The Roaring Fork Teacher Education Program - with Liz Meador (manuscript in progress). For six years we were involved in an innovative teacher education program, a social reconstructionist teacher education experiment. Supported by George Stranahan and the COMPASS (formerly the Aspen Educational Research Foundation) organization and based on Myles Horton's Highlander model of community deliberation and community organization, we engaged prospective teachers in a teacher education program committed to recognizing the links between community and schools. This work explores the conception, creation and implementation of a current effort at social reconstructionist teacher education.