Education in Edge City: Cases for Reflection and Action

Education in Edge City, Second Edition is a unique collection of cases designed to provide preservice teachers with opportunities for realistic decision making. A hypothetical city, residential communities, a school district, and school buildings are described. Within this setting, students, teachers, administrators, parents, and board members are all introduced and portrayed in varying detail. Students are asked to step into their shoes to solve their problems. Professors who have used the first edition attest to the power of this text to trigger debate and discussion, to cause students to appreciate the fundamental issues in education, and to motivate them to use other resources to deepen their understanding of those issues. Features: * A series of cases, all dealing with characters and situations in the Edge City context, provide students with experience in making professional decisions and in dealing with the consequences of those decisions. No textbook can take the place of actual experience, but the hands-on and "minds-on" exercises in this casebook will help future teachers see the big picture of what teaching entails. * Students have the opportunity to examine issues of classroom management, assessment, diversity, professionalism, school governance, and more. * Each chapter in the book includes a short introduction to a case, focus questions related to the issues of the case, the case itself, questions for reflection and discussion about the issues raised, class and individual projects related to the case, additional teaching and learning activities which include role play opportunities and ways to examine the issues in the students' local school community. There are also suggestions for further reading. Detailed information on the elements in this book and how they are organized is contained in the Introduction. * Following Part I, the topics and organization of the book parallel those found in many introductions to education and foundations of education courses: Instruction and Classroom Management; Issues in Education; and Finance, Organization, and Governance. Therefore, the activities provide a natural supplement to the information provided in those courses. The cases can be used in conjunction with a class text; they can also be used as the foci for meaningful discussion during student teaching seminars and/or teacher in-service. New in the second edition: * The text has been thoroughly updated and the format has been adjusted to make it more informative and useful. * One new section has been added (Part I: Context). * Three chapters have been totally rewritten, and four entirely new chapters have been added to better address issues of diversity; school finance; curriculum; and community involvement in education. * The questions and activities in each chapter have been reorganized to help instructors and students use the book more effectively.