Free School Teaching: A Journey into Radical Progressive Education

by Kristan Accles Morrison

Overview

Free School Teaching is the personal and professional journey of one teacher within the American educational system. Faced with mounting frustrations in her own traditional, middle school classroom and having little success in resolving them, Kristan Accles Morrison decided to seek out answers, first by immersing herself in the academic literature of critical education theory and then by turning to the field. While the literature on progressive education gave her hope that things could be better for students locked into America's traditional education system, she wanted to find a firsthand example of how these ideas played out in practice. Morrison found a radical "free school" in Albany, New York, that embodied the ideas found in the literature, and over a period of three months she observed and documented differences between alternative and traditional schools. In trying to reconcile the gap between those systems, Morrison details what she learned about teachers, students, curriculum, and the entire conception of why we educate our children.

About the Author:
Kristan Accles Morrison is Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership at Radford University

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900791471486
Publication date:	06/07/2007
Pages:	195
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Kristan Accles Morrison is Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership at Radford University.

Table of Contents

Preface     vii
Successful Student, Struggling Teacher     1
A Language for Self-Understanding     17
A New Vision     41
I Find a School     53
A Very Different Setup     59
A Very Different Curriculum     73
Very Different Students and Teachers     111
A Teacher Transformed     143
Reform or Revolution-Is There Hope for Change in Traditional Schools?     161
Notes     171
Bibliography     179
Index     183

Editorial Reviews

"The effects of standardized competitive schooling are severe and they need to be critically reported as publicly and as often as possible. The stories of democratic schools, such as the one profiled here, provide inspirational alternatives. This is a book with an important story to tell." — Ron Miller, author of Free School, Free People: Education and Democracy after the 1960s

From the Publisher