Curriculum in the Making

Challenging the current assumption in the educational reform movement that simply mandating curriculum top-down will alter classroom practice, the author instead focuses on case studies of four English teachers and "the role of teacher values, beliefs, experience, and expertise" as a primary determinant for curriculum and how these decisions, in turn, affect what and how students learn. Embedding her thesis and case studies in current research on teacher decision-making and secondary school reform, the author addresses the struggle between personal and professional autonomy and obligations to school administration's and mandated curricula. Graduate students and professors of teacher education, foundations, sociology, and anthropology of education, as well as pre- and in-service secondary school teachers, will recognize this book as being one of the few volumes to apply educational criticism to the study of classroom practice.