The Mindful Teacher (Series on School Reform) - Tapa blanda

This book provides powerful evidence of the benefits of authentic school and university partnerships. The Mindful Teacher will be treasured by educators everywhere." - Thomas Payzant, Professor of Practice, Harvard University, and Superintendent of the Boston Public Schools 1995-2006 "All those who care about education and our schools will cherish The Mindful Teacher . Here is a text that teaches us how to name, frame, and claim the problems of urban education, as we embrace the struggle, organize the support, and provide learning for those in schools and universities alike." - Ann Lieberman, Senior Scholar, Stanford University "This is the book I have been looking for. The Mindful Teacher is conceptually rich and practically feasible. I have no doubt that 'the seven synergies of mindful teaching' will inspire teaching well beyond North America." - Jonathan D Jansen, author of Knowledge in the Blood: Confronting Race and the Apartheid Past and Vice Chancellor and Principal, University of the Free State, South Africa.

The authors, one an urban public school teacher in Boston and the other a professor of education at Boston College, define and articulate the idea of 'alienated teaching' and offer a means to counter it. Alienated teaching is what teachers do when they feel that they must comply with external conditions that they have not chosen and from which they inwardly dissent because they do not believe that new policies and reforms serve their students well. Funded by a grant from the Boston Collaborative Fellows, the authors examine the effects of top-down policy mandates on classroom teachers. 'Mindful teaching' is a way for teachers to learn how to incorporate appropriately, reforms and mandates into their practice. Mindful teaching promotes openness to new ideas and new perspectives via discussion in a collegial group committed to teacher inquiry. It promotes quiet and thoughtful articulation about professional commitment and beliefs. The authors are strong proponents of teachers becoming 'teacher leaders' in order to work through the issues of mandates, teaching to the text, etc.