Teaching in Context: The Social Side of Education Reform

Teaching in Context (Harvard Education Press, 2017) provides new evidence from a range of leading scholars showing that teachers become more effective when they work in organizations that support them in comprehensive and coordinated ways. The studies featured in the book suggest an alternative approach to enhancing teacher quality: creating conditions and school structures that facilitate the transmission and sharing of knowledge among teachers, allowing teachers to work together effectively, and capitalizing on what we know about how educators learn and improve.

Policies aimed at improving teaching should focus on strengthening the organization as a whole so that all teachers are likely to improve. The chapters in this book point to the need to reevaluate current policies for assessing and ensuring teacher effectiveness, and establish the foundation for a more thoughtful, research-informed approach.

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Edited by Esther Quintero

 

Table of Contents

FOREWORD: Moving Forward Together
Andy Hargreaves

INTRODUCTION: The Social Side of Education Reform
Esther Quintero

CHAPTER 1: Developing Workplaces Where Teachers Stay, Improve, and Succeed: Recent Evidence on the Importance of School Climate for Teacher Success
John P. Papay and Matthew A. Kraft

CHAPTER 2: Reaping Rewards for Students: How Successful Urban Schools Systematically Invest in Teachers
Susan Moore Johnson, Stefanie K. Reinhorn, and Nicole S. Simon

CHAPTER 3: Better Collaboration, Better Teaching
Matthew Ronfeldt

CHAPTER 4: The Social Side of Capability: Supporting Classroom Instruction and Enabling Its Improvement
James P. Spillane, Megan Hopkins, Tracy M. Sweet, and Matthew Shirrell

CHAPTER 5: Social Capital: An Untapped Resource for Educational Improvement
Carrie R. Leana and Frits K. Pil

CHAPTER 6: The Social Cost of Leadership Churn: The Case of an Urban School District
Alan J. Daly, Kara S. Finnigan, and Yi-Hwa Liou

CHAPTER 7: How the Organization of Schools and Local Communities Shape Educational Improvement
Elaine M. Allensworth

CHAPTER 8: Organizing Adult Learning for Adaptive Change Management: A Systems Approach
Joshua P. Starr

CHAPTER 9: Research-Practice Partnerships and ESSA: A Learning Agenda for the Coming Decade
William R. Penuel and Caitlin C. Farrell

CONCLUSION: Improving the Interpersonal Dimension of Schools and School Systems
Esther Quintero