Realities of Teachers' Work: Never a Dull MomentThe Realities of Teacher' Work: Never a Dull Moment follows the fortunes of the teachers at Hillview Primary School over ten years. It explores what it is like to be a primary or elementary school teacher in an urban school with about 200 children, mixed in social class and ethnicity, and suggests what we may learn from them for the future.Sandra Acker links her research with other literature on teachers' work, and describes the school as a workplace, focusing on four key features: the characteristics of the children, the school's physical setting, the available resources, and the ethos of the school.She successfully places us in the classroom giving vivid images of daily interactions with the children, and shows too how teaching extends far beyond the classroom door. The book explores the caring culture that has developed among the teachers and helps them to cope with the difficulties they encounter. It also considers the school as located in the wider community by looking at changes in teachers' careers over time and the effects on Hillview of recent educational reform.This book shows us how and why we need to revise our assumptions about schools and teachers and see them not as isolated individuals in closed classrooms and self-contained schools, but as an integral part of a much broader community. Above all, it shows that teaching is hard, demanding work that is influenced by workplace cultures and the gendered expectations society holds about teachers. |
Contents
DOING THE WORK | 49 |
CROSSING THE BOUNDARIES | 119 |
CHANGING PEOPLE AND PLACES | 151 |
Method | 201 |
References | 219 |
234 | |
237 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Acker activities Andy Hargreaves asked assembly Betty Chaplin career caring Chapter child classroom coach Debbie Stevens Dennis Bryan deputy head deputy headship discussion Education Reform efforts ethos example experience Falmer Press feminist field notes gender Hargreaves head teacher Helen Davies Helsby Hillview teachers individual infant interview involved Kristin King Liz Clarke Liz's local education authority London look Marjorie Howard Middle Junior Unit middle-class mother move Nancy Green National Curriculum Nias parents part-time playground Pollard primary school teachers primary teachers problems responsibilities role Rosalind Phillips Rosemont Routledge says school governors secondary school social Sociology of Education sometimes staff meeting staffroom story supply teacher symbolic interactionism talk teaching term things thought training day University week women teachers Woods workplace culture write youth training scheme