Descriptive Inquiry in Teacher Practice
Cultivating Practical Wisdom to Create Democratic Schools
Cara E. Furman (Author), Cecelia E. Traugh (Author)
9780807764862
Paperback / softback, published 8 January 2021
216 pages
22.8 x 15.4 x 1 cm, 0.305 kg
What does it mean to teach for human dignity? How does one do so? This practical book shows how the leaders at four urban public schools used a process called Descriptive Inquiry to create democratic schools that promote and protect human dignity. The authors argue that teachers must attend to who a child is and find a way to create classrooms that allow everyone to feel safe and express ideas. Responding to the perennial question of how to cultivate teachers, they offer an approach that attends to both ethical development and instructional methods. They also provide a way forward for school leaders seeking to listen to, and provide guidance for, their staff. At its core, Descriptive Inquiry in Teacher Practice champions a commitment to schools as places in which children, teachers, and leaders can learn how to live and work well together.
Book Features:
- Illustrates how to take an inquiry stance toward the difficult issues that educators face every day.
- Examines how themes regularly addressed in foundations can be used to improve schools.
- Includes engaging portraits of progressive urban schools that showcase the qualities of the leaders that guide them.
- Demonstrates the power of a progressive and humanistic education for children of color and for those from lower-income backgrounds.
- Contents (Tentative)
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Cara E. Furman and Cecelia E. Traugh
- What Is Human Dignity?
- What Is Teaching?
- Democracy and Teacher Development
- Sources and Methods
- Overview of the Text
- Adding to the Conversation
- Part I: Philosophical Framings
- 1.
The Need for Practical Wisdom: What It Is and How It’
s Developed
- Cara E. Furman
- Practical Wisdom in a Complex Teaching Situation: My Recollection
- Practical Wisdom
- Teaching: To Be Effective and Ethical
- Origins and Key Criteria of Practical Wisdom
- 2.
The Cultivating of a Practically Wise Teacher Self
- Cara E. Furman
- The Cultivation of Practical Wisdom
- Closing Thoughts
- 3.
Cultivating Practical Wisdom Through Descriptive Inquiry: A Case of Caring of the Self
- Cecelia E. Traugh
- Putting Values Into Action
- Values Shaping Descriptive Inquiry
- Closing Comments: Descriptive Inquiry as an Ethical Endeavor
- Part II: How Descriptive Inquiry Lived in the Schools: Promoting Human Dignity with Children and Teachers
- 4.
City-as-School: Building a Collaborative Culture Through Descriptive Inquiry
- Rachel Seher
- Collaborative Cultures
- City-as-School
- Before Descriptive Inquiry
- Starting Descriptive Inquiry
- Lessons for School Leadership
- Addendum
- 5.
Curricular Values: Exploring the Place of Children, Teachers, and the Culture of School in Building Curriculum
- Cara E. Furman with Cecelia E. Traugh
- Inquiries Into Writing Curriculum—
Cara’
s Story
- My Experience of the Year and the Review
- Descriptive Inquiry and Curriculum: The Principals’
Perspectives
- Coming to Know a School’
s Curricular Culture
- To Be Known Through One’
s Work: The Power of Sharing Curriculum and Grappling With Words and Deeds
- 6.
Using Descriptive Process to Rebuild and Sustain a Democratic School Community
- Jane Andrias
- The School
- Revisiting What Was There
- Descriptive Process: A Palette of Possibilities
- Conclusion
- Postscript
- Part III: Seeing and acting with Others: How Descriptive Inquiry Supports Practical Wisdom
- 7.
Changing a Perspective: No Easy Task
- Cara E. Furman
- A Most Noble Deed
- The Power of Perspective
- Attending
- Context
- Juxtaposition
- Care
- Changing Perspective
- 8.
Supporting and Being Supported: Support Team
- Cara E. Furman and Alison Hazut
- Adjusting Our Vision of Children: Alison’
s Narrative
- Being Seen as a Teacher and a Learner: Cara’
s Narrative
- Implications
- 9.
Listening So as to Attend: Descriptions of Cecelia’
s Role in Schools
- Cara E. Furman, with Cecelia E. Traugh and Laurie Engle
- Setting
- Listening to Cecelia
- Integrated Restatement
- Postscript
- Part IV: What Does it Mean to Lead Schools for Human Dignity?
- 10.
The Authority of Values Within Collaborative School Communities.
- Cecelia E. Traugh, with Rachel Seher and Abbe Futterman
- Listening for Meaning
- Building School Culture
- Negotiating Competing Values
- Working on Difficult Issues
- Integrative Restatement
- 11.
A Reflection on the Idea of the Practically Wise School
- Cecelia E. Traugh and Cara E. Furman
- References
- Index
- About the Authors
