Synopses & Reviews
This book studies education and curriculum from the perspective of the teachers stance in the classroom. Writing through the lenses offered by autobiography, a lifetime in the classroom serving as teacher, and drawing heavily on Jewish and secular scholarly texts, Block offers a vision of education that serves as an alternative to the increasingly instrumentalist, managerial, standards-driven impersonal nature of contemporary schools. He advocates not for a pedagogy of ethics, but for the original ethical stance every teacher already assumes by entering into the classroom. It is from this stance in ethics, he argues, that all pedagogy derives.
Review
"Alan Block's beautiful new book helps revitalize education by helping us remember some of what we have lost, and it speaks in a voice that is both intimate and studied. In the winds of this text, like Alan's earlier books, education is redemptive and study is prayer. These reminders are timely and true."--Dr. David Jardine, Professor of Education, University of Calgary
“Alan Block's new book is an intense and elegant meditation on his own pedagogical journey as both teacher and student. Drawing on his rich, personal, professional, and religious experiences and revelations, Block adds his powerful and ever-present voice to the ‘complicated conversation that is now curriculum studies. This book is well worth sustained attention.”--Dr. Greg Dimtriadis, Professor of Education, University at Buffalo
"This book is engaging, scholarly and deeply gratifying. Most importantly, it returns the work of teaching to the intellect, aspirations and realities of the adults who teach, liberating teaching from infantilization and from its exile in the audit culture of tests, outcomes, gains and losses."--Madeleine Grumet, Professor of Education and Communication Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"Block's is a rare entry into the literature of this field. Instead of an anonymous, disembodied voice emitting platitudinous generalities from on high, Block speaks to the reader in an engagingly idiosyncratic manner. As an educator of some 35 years, with experience as both a high school teacher and university-based teacher-educator, his views on such current and controversial topics as the federal No Child Left Behind legislation and high-stakes testing in general have a special credibility." --CHOICE
Review
"Alan Block's beautiful new book helps revitalize education by helping us remember some of what we have lost, and it speaks in a voice that is both intimate and studied. In the winds of this text, like Alan's earlier books, education is redemptive and study is prayer. These reminders are timely and true."--Dr. David Jardine, Professor of Education, University of Calgary
Alan Block's new book is an intense and elegant meditation on his own pedagogical journey as both teacher and student. Drawing on his rich, personal, professional, and religious experiences and revelations, Block adds his powerful and ever-present voice to the complicated conversation that is now curriculum studies. This book is well worth sustained attention.”--Dr. Greg Dimtriadis, Professor of Education, University at Buffalo
"This book is engaging, scholarly and deeply gratifying. Most importantly, it returns the work of teaching to the intellect, aspirations and realities of the adults who teach, liberating teaching from infantilization and from its exile in the audit culture of tests, outcomes, gains and losses."--Madeleine Grumet, Professor of Education and Communication Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"Block's is a rare entry into the literature of this field. Instead of an anonymous, disembodied voice emitting platitudinous generalities from on high, Block speaks to the reader in an engagingly idiosyncratic manner. As an educator of some 35 years, with experience as both a high school teacher and university-based teacher-educator, his views on such current and controversial topics as the federal No Child Left Behind legislation and high-stakes testing in general have a special credibility." --CHOICE
Synopsis
In an important contribution to postcolonial, gender, and Eurasian ethnic studies, Madina Tlostanova examines Central Asia and the Caucasus to trace the genealogy of feminism in those regions following the dissolution of the USSR. The forms it takes, she finds, resist interpretation through the lenses of both Western feminist theory and woman of color feminism. Tlostanova argues that Eurasian borderland feminism must chart a third path sensitive to the region's own unique past.
Synopsis
In this book, Block critically examines the political and social critique now directed at the teaching profession, and to look at some ethical positions the teacher regularly and already takes in the course of her daily life in the classroom.
About the Author
Alan Block has worked in the public schools for over thirty-five years, as both a high school English teacher and a professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. The author of numerous articles, book chapters, and five books, he continues to be an engaged educator and concerned Other.
Table of Contents
PART I: EVERY THIRD THOUGHT SHALL BE OF THE GRADE * Why Should I Be a Teacher? * Trading a Pedagogue for Two Teachers * Finding Lost Objects * Surviving Sinai * PART II: EVERY THIRD THOUGHT SHALL BE OF THE BRAVE * It Must Suffice * Study and Benevolence * PART III: EVERY THIRD THOUGHT SHALL BE MY GRAVE * Intimation of Immortality, An Ode