Exchanging Writing, Exchanging Cultures
Lessons in School Reform from the United States and Great Britain
Published on 25. March 1997
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-674-27394-8 (ISBN)
Description
What can teachers in British and American inner-city schools learn from each other about literacy training? To explore this question, Sarah Warshauer Freedman and her British colleagues set up a writing exchange that matched classes from four middle and high schools in the San Francisco Bay area with their London equivalents.
Exchanging Writing, Exchanging Cultures offers concrete lessons to school reformers, policymakers, and classroom teachers about the value and effectiveness of different approaches to teaching writing. Freedman goes beyond the specific subject matter of this study, looking anew at Vygotsky's and Bakhtin's theories of social interaction and addressing the larger questions of the relationship between culture and education.
Exchanging Writing, Exchanging Cultures offers concrete lessons to school reformers, policymakers, and classroom teachers about the value and effectiveness of different approaches to teaching writing. Freedman goes beyond the specific subject matter of this study, looking anew at Vygotsky's and Bakhtin's theories of social interaction and addressing the larger questions of the relationship between culture and education.
Reviews / Votes
Sarah Freedman has written a timely and lucid book with important implications for educational practice on both sides of the Atlantic...The book is distinguished by the way in which it uses the fresh and vigorous insights of the eight teachers and their thirty-two students. Skillful analysis of the students' work and the comments by teachers provided the new evidence about the complex ways in which writing reflects and shapes education...The judgments of this highly respected educator are worthy of attention. -- James Porter * Times Educational Supplement *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
13 line illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
376 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-27394-8 (9780674273948)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sarah Warshauer Freedman is Professor of Education and the Study of Writing at the University of California, Berkeley.
Content
Borders are not boundaries; learning about policy and curriculum - the national surveys; comparing local contexts - exchanges among teachers, schools, and classrooms; sharing responsibility, releasing control, Carol Mather and Fiona Rodgers; managing mixed-ability teaching, raising standards, Nancy Hughes and Peter Ross; creating opportunity, implementing national examinations, Ann Powers and Gillian Hargrove; elevating expectations, facing constraints, Bridget Franklin and Philippa Furlong; crossing cultures. Appendices: chapter 2 tables; value orientations in teaching writing; data collection and analysis for the exchange.