Thinking about Schools

Eleanor Blair Hilty is an associate professor of education at Western Carolina University (WCU) in Cullowhee, North Carolina. She is the director of the MAED program in secondary education and teaches foundations of education courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She is a frequent visitor to Jamaica where she teaches Jamaican teachers enrolled in degree programs through WCU's Jamaica Program. Her research on teacher's work has extended over a twenty year period. This work has been presented at regional, national, and international conferences and published in various journals and books.

• Preface -- Introduction -- What are the Aims and Purposes of Education -- Conflict and Consensus Revisited -- A Past for the Present -- Intellectual Capital -- Learning from the Past -- We Want It All -- Part I Additional Resources -- What Should be the Content of the Curriculum? -- The Shifting Ground of Curriculum Thought and Everyday Practice -- But That’s Just Good Teaching! -- The Banking Concept of Education -- Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality -- The Silenced Dialogue -- Part II Additional Resources -- What are the Roles and Responsibilities of Teacher Leaders? -- Teachers as Transformative Intellectuals -- On the Frontier of School Reform with Trailblazers, Pioneers, and Settlers -- How to Build Leadership Capacity -- Against the Grain -- What are we Doing Here? Building a Framework for Teaching -- Part III Additional Resources -- What are the Roles and Responsibilities of Students? -- Adequate Schools and Inadequate Education -- Educators, Homosexuality, and Homosexual Students -- At-Risk Children and the Common School Ideal -- Silencing and Nurturing Voice in an Improbable Context -- Standing for Students, Standing for Change -- Part IV Additional Resources -- What are the Issues that Impact Twenty-First-Century Schools? -- Grouping the Gifted and Talented -- Let’s Declare Education a Disaster and Get on with Our Lives -- The Professionally Challenged Teacher -- The Educational Costs of Standardization -- From “Separate but Equal” to “No Child Left Behind” -- Closing the Achievement Gap by Detracking -- Still Separate, Still Unequal -- Talking About Race, Learning About Racism -- Come and Listen to a Story -- Rethinking Education in a Technological World -- Part V Additional Resources -- Credits

"In Thinking about Schools, Eleanor Hilty has put together a wonderful collection of classic and contemporary readings that speak loudly and clearly to the importance of equity and justice as goals for contemporary education. This is just the right collection of readings to inspire and inform prospective and practicing teachers alike. It is the perfect text for introducing students to the social forces affecting public schooling in America." -Barry M. Franklin, Utah State University "Thinking about Schools will be welcomed by those who are interested in thought-provoking essays for aspiring and current teachers. Hilty's introductory essays and discussion questions add significantly to the value of the volume." -Douglas Simpson, Texas Tech University