Professional Communities and the Work of High School Teaching » (1)

Milbrey W. McLaughlin is the David Jacks Professor of Education and Public Policy, annd Joan E. Talbert is the senior research scholar at Stanford University, where they codirect the Center for Research on the Context of Teaching. With David Cohen, they are coauthors of Teaching For Understanding.

American high schools have never been under more pressure to reform: student populations are more diverse than ever, resources are limited, and teachers are expected to teach to high standards for all students. While many reformers look for change at the state or district level, the authors here argue that the most local contexts—schools, departments, and communities—matter the most to how well teachers perform in the classroom and how satisfied they are professionally. Their findings—based on one of the most extensive research projects ever done on secondary teaching—show that departmental cultures play a crucial role in classroom settings and expectations. In the same school, for example, social studies teachers described their students as "apathetic and unwilling to work," while English teachers described the same students as "bright, interesting, and energetic."

With wide-ranging implications for educational practice and policy, this unprecedented look into teacher communities is essential reading for educators, administrators, and all those concerned with U. S. High Schools.

Library Journal

To make sense of the world high school teachers face each day, McLaughlin and Talbert codirectors of Stanford's Center for Research on the Context of Teaching interviewed hundreds of teachers in 16 Michigan and California schools over a four-year period in the early 1990s. Assistants also conducted field research at these schools. The result is a close look at teachers and how classroom practice, colleague relations, and teachers' responses to students influence high schools. Seeing the teaching community as a primary unit for improving education has wide-ranging implications for professional practice and for policy, making this informative study an important contribution to discussions on school reforms. The meticulous notes and references assure its use for further research. Recommended for education reform collections in public and academic libraries and essential for teacher education and educational administration programs. Leroy Hommerding, Fort Myers Beach P.L., FL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.