2nd Edition

Education in Edge City Cases for Reflection and Action

    232 Pages
    by Routledge

    226 Pages
    by Routledge

    Education in Edge City, Second Edition is a unique collection of cases designed to provide preservice teachers with opportunities for realistic decision making. A hypothetical city, residential communities, a school district, and school buildings are described. Within this setting, students, teachers, administrators, parents, and board members are all introduced and portrayed in varying detail. Students are asked to step into their shoes to solve their problems. Professors who have used the first edition attest to the power of this text to trigger debate and discussion, to cause students to appreciate the fundamental issues in education, and to motivate them to use other resources to deepen their understanding of those issues.

    Features:
    * A series of cases, all dealing with characters and situations in the Edge City context, provide students with experience in making professional decisions and in dealing with the consequences of those decisions. No textbook can take the place of actual experience, but the hands-on and "minds-on" exercises in this casebook will help future teachers see the big picture of what teaching entails.
    * Students have the opportunity to examine issues of classroom management, assessment, diversity, professionalism, school governance, and more.
    * Each chapter in the book includes a short introduction to a case, focus questions related to the issues of the case, the case itself, questions for reflection and discussion about the issues raised, class and individual projects related to the case, additional teaching and learning activities which include role play opportunities and ways to examine the issues in the students' local school community. There are also suggestions for further reading. Detailed information on the elements in this book and how they are organized is contained in the Introduction.

    * Following Part I, the topics and organization of the book parallel those found in many introductions to education and foundations of education courses: Instruction and Classroom Management; Issues in Education; and Finance, Organization, and Governance.

    Therefore, the activities provide a natural supplement to the information provided in those courses. The cases can be used in conjunction with a class text; they can also be used as the foci for meaningful discussion during student teaching seminars and/or teacher in-service.

    New in the second edition:
    * The text has been thoroughly updated and the format has been adjusted to make it more informative and useful.
    * One new section has been added (Part I: Context).
    * Three chapters have been totally rewritten, and four entirely new chapters have been added to better address issues of diversity; school finance; curriculum; and community involvement in education.
    * The questions and activities in each chapter have been reorganized to help instructors and students use the book more effectively.

    Contents: Foreword. Preface. Introduction: What This Book Is About and How It Is Organized. Part I: Context. But Where Am I? Edge City and Its Schools. But Do You Really Want Me? Affirmative Action in Action. Part II: Instruction and Classroom Management. Hey Teach! Are You Rocking the Boat? Making Instructional Decisions. How Can You Do This to Me? Grading and Evaluation. Do They Have to Be in a Straight Row? Classroom Climate. Aren't We All Challenged? Providing for the Special Student. Vive Les Differences--Maybe: Embracing Diversity. Now Just Exactly What Did I Do Wrong? A Case of Cheating. Part III: Issues in Education. Do You Call This Being Creative? Sexism in the Classroom. How Was Your Breakfast This Morning? Socioeconomic, Ethnic, and Cultural Differences. Shall We Pray? Religion in the Schools. Whose Paper Is This Anyway? Student Rights and Responsibilities. Part IV: Finance, Organization, and Governance. But How Much Does It Cost? School Finance. Who's in Charge Here? Professionalism and Control of Schools. Isn't It Just a Matter of Time? The School Curriculum. Does It Really Take a Village? Community Efforts in Education. Appendices: Biographies and Cumulative Folders. United States Constitution. Character Index.

    Biography

    Hinely, Reg; Ford, Karen; Leavell, Alexandra

    "Enables the instructor to cover a wide range of issues in a coherent, integrated fashion, while being an interesting read for the student. This text is timely and addresses the questions most often posed by preservice teachers."
    Dennis N. Banks
    State University of New York, College at Oneonta

    "This book is NOT like a textbook, which is a definite plus. There is a narrative quality that makes it very accessible....There are ambiguities within cases and layers of complexity to be explored which are very true to real life....The impossibility of arriving at 'right' answers in all situations is one of the strongest points students carry away....What the cases do is raise questions, which is exactly what they should be doing. This is real classroom life, and for students who [do not have access] to experiences in the classroom within a particular course context, this is a very good second best."
    Kate Cruikshank
    Indiana University