Getting to Where We Meant to Be Edition 2

“If you’d like to see public education thrive, here is a book to bolster your arguments. Down to earth writing and excellent choice of content allow vitally important concepts about schooling in contemporary America to be analyzed and easily comprehended. It is one of the clearest discussions I’ve read about curriculum and other key policy issues, including their meaning and their importance for our administrators, teachers, schools, parents—and yes, for our nation as well. Every decision about these issues is a decision that will shape the knowledge base, skills and dispositions of tomorrow’s citizens. This insightful and highly readable book explains why such decisions should never be made lightly.”

David C. Berliner, Regents’ Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University

“Education is plagued with good intentions gone awry, particularly when the follow-through is framed by commonsensical assumptions that lack a sound research basis. Hinchey and Konkol paint a compelling and nuanced picture of exactly how this is happening in many core areas of schooling, and then offer concrete tools for reframing and reimagining. In this moment when too many so-called reforms are taking advantage of seductive rhetoric, educators and policy makers alike who are fortunate enough to pick up this book will find themselves at once enraptured, unsettled, and more hopeful.”

Kevin Kumashiro, Author of "Bad Teacher!: How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture"

“In this provocative and compelling book, Pat Hinchey and Pamela Konkol challenge us to rethink assumptions about teaching, learning, and curriculum. Their powerful text details assumptions currently dominating neoliberal education reform as well as alternative perspectives, illuminating complexities in critical issues that often go unexamined. Those who care about public education and the imperative of its deep potential need to read, contemplate, and take purposeful action prompted in Getting to Where We Meant to Be.”

Brian D. Schultz, Professor and Chair of Teacher Education at Miami University, Author of "Teaching in the Cracks: Openings and Opportunities for Student-Centered, Action-Focused Curriculum"

A Message from the Publisher

Preface

1. “You Have Arrived at Your Destination.” Oh, really?

 The Many Ways We Lose Our Way

 The Many Ways We Lose Our Way in Schools

 Where Do You Want to Go . . . and How Will You Get There?

 Things to Think About

 Things to Explore

2. What are Schools for, Anyway?

 Assumptions about the Goals of Public Schools

 Frameworks for Goal Setting

 Choices for Educators

 Things to Think About

 Things to Explore 

3. What Does It Mean to Educate for Citizenship?

 Assumptions about Educating for Citizenship

 Frameworks for Citizenship Education

 Choices for Educators

 Things to Think About

 Things to Explore 

4. What Is Curriculum? And Who Decides What’s in It?

 Assumptions around Curriculum

 Frameworks for Curriculum

 Choices for Educators

 Things to Think About

 Things to Explore 

5. How Much Control Does a (Student) Body Need?

 Assumptions about Control in Schools

 Frameworks for Disciplinary Policies

 Choices for Educators

 Things to Think About

 Things to Explore 

6. Reform? By Whom, and For What?

 Assumptions about Reform

 Frameworks for Reform

 Choices for Educators

 Things to Think About

 Things to Explore 

7. The Way Forward 

Index

Patricia H. Hinchey

Patricia H. Hinchey is Penn State Professor Emerita of Education and a Fellow of the National Education Policy Center. She holds a doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she taught several graduate courses in secondary English education. In addition to teaching a wide variety of both undergraduate and graduate education courses at Penn State, she has conducted professional development for K-12 and university faculty nationally and internationally. She also served as director of a professional development unit serving university faculty at multiple campus locations. In addition to teacher education, professional development, and action research, her interests include the intersection of theory and classroom practice, a focus of this most recent work from Myers Education Press. She is as well the author or co-author of several well-known books and numerous articles.

Pamela J. Konkol

Pamela J. Konkol, PhD is the Executive Director of the American Educational Studies Association and a professor of foundations, social policy, and research at Concordia University. She holds a PhD in Policy Studies in Urban Education and an MEd in Curriculum Studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a BS in Communication/Cultural Studies and Women’s Studies from Northwestern University. When not fighting the good fight for children, families, and communities, she’s active in English Bull Terrier rescue efforts.