The Work and Lives of Teachers
A Global Perspective

This book shows the ways that cultural attitudes toward the teaching profession influence how students perform across the globe.

Rosetta Marantz Cohen (Author)

9781316501634, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 7 December 2016

246 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.3 cm, 0.36 kg

'This is an outstanding book, every page is interesting and valuable; at times, informative, emotional, fascinating and at other times gently humorous.' Gifted Education International

The Work and Lives of Teachers offers a simple but original argument: that the cultural attitudes toward the teaching profession measurably influence how students perform. Cohen uses both ethnographic portraits and personal accounts from teachers for several countries to explore the meaning and value of teaching worldwide. This study includes the ways in which teachers in these countries are educated, recruited, compensated, and perceived by parents, students, administrators, and the culture at large. Teachers' voices, so rarely heard in international educational studies, are front and center here, highlighting the daily work in the classroom and the pleasures and struggles of engaging in today's teaching profession. The lesson, briefly stated, is that societies are only as good as the people who teach in them.

Teaching on Earth: introduction
1. Finland: autonomy and respect Annukka Suonio
2. Taiwan: tradition and change Feng-juan Kuo
3. Greece: a week of austerity Vasiliki Michailidou
4. Azerbaijan: teaching in the shadow of war Gulnaz Haciyeva
5. France: defending rigor Laurence Manfrini
6. Chile: revolution and resignation Mauricio Ramirez
7. America: diversity and a passion for leadership Bonnie Fineman
8. The teacher in comparative perspective
9. Teachers in their own words.

Subject Areas: Teaching skills & techniques [JNT], Educational psychology [JNC], Philosophy & theory of education [JNA]