Exchanging Writing, Exchanging Cultures

Sarah Warshauer Freedman is Professor of Education and the Study of Writing at the University of California, Berkeley.

• Borders are not boundaries; learning about policy and curriculum - the national surveys; comparing local contexts - exchanges among teachers, schools, and classrooms; sharing responsibility, releasing control, Carol Mather and Fiona Rodgers; managing mixed-ability teaching, raising standards, Nancy Hughes and Peter Ross; creating opportunity, implementing national examinations, Ann Powers and Gillian Hargrove; elevating expectations, facing constraints, Bridget Franklin and Philippa Furlong; crossing cultures. Appendices: chapter 2 tables; value orientations in teaching writing; data collection and analysis for the exchange.

Sarah Freedman has written a timely and lucid book with important implications for educational practice on both sides of the Atlantic...The book is distinguished by the way in which it uses the fresh and vigorous insights of the eight teachers and their thirty-two students. Skillful analysis of the students' work and the comments by teachers provided the new evidence about the complex ways in which writing reflects and shapes education...The judgments of this highly respected educator are worthy of attention.