The Moral Life of Schools
1. Edition February 1998
352 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
"Rarely have I come across a book that so quickly provoked me to
re-examine my own classroom behavior. There is no place to hide in
this careful scrutiny of the teacher as crucial player in the daily
morality tale that becomes the story of school life."
-- Vivian Gussin Paley, teacher, University of Chicago Laboratory
Schools
This book takes the reader on an eye-opening journey through a
variety of elementary and high school classrooms, highlighting the
moral significance of all that transpires there. Drawing on the
results of a two-and-a-half year study, the authors examine the
ways in which moral considerations permeate the everyday life of
classrooms. In addition to providing teachers and teacher educators
with a new framework for looking at and thinking about the moral
dimensions of schooling, the authors also offer specific
suggestions about how to look at classroom events from a moral
perspective.
Contents
One. Looking for the Moral: An Observer's Guide
Two. Becoming Aware of Moral Complexity Within a School Setting:
Four Sets of Observations
Three. Facing Moral Ambiguity and Tension: Four More Sets of
Observations
Four. Cultivating Expressive Awareness in Schools and
Classrooms
Postscript: Where Might One Go from Here?
Philip W. Jackson is the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished
Service Professor of Education and Psychology and a member of the
Committee on Ideas and Methods at the University of Chicago.
Robert E. Boostrom is a senior research associate of the Benton
Center for Curriculum and Instruction at the University of
Chicago.
David T. Hansen is an assistant professor of curriculum and
instruction in the College of Education at the University of
Illinois at Chicago
Becoming Aware of Moral Complexity Within a School Setting: Four
Sets of Observations.
Facing Moral Ambiguity and Tension: Four More Sets of
Observations.
Cultivating Expressive Awareness in Schools and Classrooms.
Postscript: Where Might One Go from Here?
interactive processes in the classroom I have ever read. . .no more
final exams for teacher students without giving them this oeuvre as
compulsory reading." (Educational Researcher)
"Convincingly argues that morality in school has less to do with
object lessons than with nuance. . .Who we are, this invaluable
book reminds us, imbues our teaching, which is why good
teaching?that is moral teaching?must begin with self-scrutiny."
(Teacher Magazine)
"Rarely have I come across a book that so quickly provoked me to
re-examine my own classroom behavior. There is no place to hide in
this careful scrutiny of the teacher as crucial player in the daily
morality tale that becomes the story of school life." (Vivian
Gussin Paley, teacher, University of Chicago Laboratory
Schools)
"Jackson, Boostrom, and Hansen capture the ways in which classroom
communities shape the hearts and minds of students and teachers
alike in as full-bodied a fashion as Jackson's Life in Classrooms
first recorded the pulse and passions of school life. The Moral
Life of Schools is powerful reading for anyone concerned with the
aims of education, with the inner lives of teachers and children,
and with the most important foundations of our society--our ways of
learning to live together." (Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of
education, Teachers College, Columbia University)
"Jackson, Boostrom, and Hansen guide the reader engagingly into
largely uncharted territory. The moral impact of schooling has
traditionally been tackled by philosophers, absent the rich
descriptions of classroom life offered here. This well-justified
departure from traditional empirical research brings essential new
insights about the culture of schools and classrooms." (Jeannie
Oakes, professor, Graduate School of Education, University of
California, Los Angeles)
