This is a short piece about the problems that professionalism poses for the academic historian. History is a different kind of subject, and too often academic rigor gets in the way of telling the kinds of historical accounts that we need. An earlier version was published in 2017 in the International Journal of the Historiography of Education. Perils … Continue reading Perils of the Professionalized Historian
This is a short piece about the problems that professionalism poses for the academic historian. History is a different kind of subject, and too often academic rigor gets in the way of telling the kinds of historical accounts that we need. An earlier version was published in 2017 in the International Journal of the Historiography of Education. Perils … Continue reading Perils of the Professionalized Historian
This post is a classic essay by David Cohen. The version I'm reproducing here comes from a conference paper he prepared for the Benton Center at University of Chicago. Here's a link to the original. An earlier and shorter version was published as a chapter in 1988 in a book edited by Philip Jackson, Contributing … Continue reading David Cohen — Teaching Practice: Plus Ca Change
This post is an essay by David Brooks that appeared in The Atlantic in late June. Here's a link to the original. It's a tribute to people who were late bloomers. They didn't make it big right at the start of their careers but found their way to a more satisfying and substantial life of accomplishment … Continue reading David Brooks — Late Bloomers
In this piece, I explore a major problem I have with recent educational policy discourse — the way we have turned teachers from the heroes of the public school story to its villains. If students are failing, we now hear, it is the fault of teachers. This targeting of teachers employs a new form of … Continue reading Targeting Teachers
[This essay is now a chapter in my new book, The Ironies of Schooling.] Professionals, by definition, are more skilled than amateurs in any given field, but they both experience failure. And to an average observer, they appear to fail in similar ways. The practitioner is moving along nicely in carrying out his or her … Continue reading Failing Like a Professional: Professionals Choke, Amateurs Panic
This post is my response to student comments about a piece I wrote called "We're Producing Academic Technicians and Justice Warriors: A Sermon on Educational Research, part 2." Both were published in the Swiss journal Bildungsgeschichte: International Journal for the Historiography of Education. The "We're Producing" paper was in turn a follow-up to another piece I … Continue reading Response to Student Comments on My “Academic Technicians and Justice Warriors” Essay
This post is a chapter from my book, How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning. It's a revised version of a paper that was previously published in 1992 as “Power, Knowledge, and the Science of Teaching: A Genealogy of Teacher Professionalization” in Harvard Educational Review. Here's a link to that version. The HER version of … Continue reading Rethinking the Movement to Professionalize Teaching: A Story of Status and Control
This post is a brief talk I gave in 2013 for the occasion celebrating the renaming of the ed school at Stanford, complete with a new logo and branded swag. It had long been called the Stanford University School of Education (SUSE for short) and at that point it changed to the Stanford Graduate School … Continue reading Why Do We Need a Graduate School of Education?
In this piece, I explore a major problem I have with recent educational policy discourse — the way we have turned teachers from the heroes of the public school story to its villains. If students are failing, we now hear, it is the fault of teachers. This targeting of teachers employs a new form of … Continue reading Targeting Teachers
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 