Getting to Where We Meant to Be

How is it, this text asks, that given such good intentions among education professionals, things in schools can go so very wrong? 


The problem, Hinchey and Konkol posit, is that unspoken and misleading assumptions result in choices, decisions and policies with disastrous consequences for kids. They tease out those assumptions on the key issues of school goals, curriculum, education for citizenship, discipline, and school reform, inviting readers to think again, to question the taken-for-granted, in the hope of better aligning intentions and outcomes.


This book is the perfect text for both undergraduate and graduate classrooms devoted to the study of public education. Questions at the end of each chapter point to ways for preservice and inservice teachers, as well as administrators and other education personnel, to advance their thinking about choices in their own contexts. In addition, suggested readings, websites and videos offer more food for thought. 


Table of Contents:

1) “You Have Arrived at Your Destination.” Oh, really?

2) What are Schools for, Anyway?

3) Whither and Whence Curriculum?

4) What Does It Mean to Educate For Citizenship?

5) How Much Control Does a (Student) Body Need?

6) Reform? By Whom and For What?

7) The Way Forward…