The compliant us versus the immutable them: does it have to be so?
This month, I’ve been recalling moments in my teaching career that I am not proud of. My disdain is not directed at myself in these instances, rather I am ashamed of the circumstances that created such moments for me and for others. When I was teaching year 12 English in an Australian school… I was…
When teachers strike—they are fighting to make the school system sustainable for all.
At the start of this year, there was teacher strike action in a local district nearby: Newton, Massachusetts. As a result of the strike, the Newton Teachers’ Association won cost-of-living salary increases for themselves, for non-teaching staff, and for substitute teachers, in addition to securing more humane paid-parental leave, and more control of teachers’ time…
On Reading Tact & the Pedagogical Relation by Norm Friesen
In his book, The Teacher and the World, David Hansen recommends that teachers identify and cultivate a personal handbook or canon of meaningful texts. This canon should consist of a variety of works that “help the teacher negotiate her or his way through the always complicated, conflicted, and redeeming realm of educating” by providing voices…
On Teaching and Teachers 