Cara E. Furman

Integrating philosophy with qualitative studies with early childhood and elementary educators, this book offers a descriptive account of care as it informs, confines, and inspires the actions of current educators. It is widely understood that care is a central part of teaching but the word is common enough to have lost its meaning. Furman argues that despite a rising focus on socio-emotional learning, schools continue to be experienced as uncaring spaces. She highlights teachers’ positive accounts of caring to reaffirm their voices and offer an account of care that teachers will find helpful and empowering. Each chapter opens with an accompanying image – a photograph taken by an early childhood teacher as part of a project and shared with their permission. The philosophers and educationalists discussed in the book include Nel Noddings, Vanessa Siddle Walker, David Hansen, Doris Santor, Michel Foucault, Sara Ahmed, and Eva Kittay.

Integrating philosophy with qualitative studies with early childhood and elementary educators, this book offers a descriptive account of care as it informs, confines, and inspires the actions of current educators. It is widely understood that care is a central part of teaching but the word is common enough to have lost its meaning. Furman argues that despite a rising focus on socio-emotional learning, schools continue to be experienced as uncaring spaces. She highlights teachers’ positive accounts of caring to reaffirm their voices and offer an account of care that teachers will find helpful and empowering. Each chapter opens with an accompanying image – a photograph taken by an early childhood teacher as part of a project and shared with their permission. The philosophers and educationalists discussed in the book include Nel Noddings, Vanessa Siddle Walker, David Hansen, Doris Santor, Michel Foucault, Sara Ahmed, and Eva Kittay.

A methodology for using philosophy to guide teaching preparation and practice. In Teaching from an Ethical Center, Cara E. Furman proposes a process for bringing philosophical inquiry into teacher education and adopting it as a centering tool to enrich teaching practice and help teachers act justly. Under Furman's thoughtful guidance, both experienced and preservice teachers will find that engagement with philosophy can be a useful means of clarifying for themselves the educational ethics, values, and pedagogy that guide their work. Using firsthand accounts, recommended resources, and thought exercises, Furman prompts readers to explore the many benefits for both educators and their students of the act of reading and making sense of philosophical texts and thinking philosophically through daily dilemmas. Furman encourages teachers to engage in philosophical reflection as part of their professional preparation as well as their in-classroom practice. She illustrates how the focus on core values that emerges from this practice can be applied to everyday teaching dilemmas such as student behavior concerns and conflict management. Offering tips for adapting activities to different audiences, she shows how student participation in such inquiry supports hermeneutics, cultivates student voice, and helps build a culture of trust and interdependence through classroom collaboration. Filled with practical wisdom, this insightful work advances philosophical inquiry as a foundation for an inclusive education. Furman's tools and methods offer continuous opportunities for reflection and affirmation, enhancing educators’ ability to adapt to new challenges and, when necessary, to resist.

What does it mean to teach for human dignity? How does one do so? This practical book shows how the leaders at four urban public schools used a process called Descriptive Inquiry to create democratic schools that promote and protect human dignity. The authors argue that teachers must attend to who a child is and find a way to create classrooms that allow everyone to feel safe and express ideas. Responding to the perennial question of how to cultivate teachers, they offer an approach that attends to both ethical development and instructional methods. They also provide a way forward for school leaders seeking to listen to, and provide guidance for, their staff. At its core, Descriptive Inquiry in Teacher Practice champions a commitment to schools as places in which children, teachers, and leaders can learn how to live and work well together. Book Features:Illustrates how to take an inquiry stance toward the difficult issues that educators face every day. Examines how themes regularly addressed in foundations can be used to improve schools. Includes engaging portraits of progressive urban schools that showcase the qualities of the leaders that guide them. Demonstrates the power of a progressive and humanistic education for children of color and for those from lower-income backgrounds.

What does it mean to teach for human dignity? How does one do so? This practical book shows how the leaders at four urban public schools used a process called Descriptive Inquiry to create democratic schools that promote and protect human dignity. The authors argue that teachers must attend to who a child is and find a way to create classrooms that allow everyone to feel safe and express ideas. Responding to the perennial question of how to cultivate teachers, they offer an approach that attends to both ethical development and instructional methods. They also provide a way forward for school leaders seeking to listen to, and provide guidance for, their staff. At its core, Descriptive Inquiry in Teacher Practice champions a commitment to schools as places in which children, teachers, and leaders can learn how to live and work well together. Book Features:Illustrates how to take an inquiry stance toward the difficult issues that educators face every day. Examines how themes regularly addressed in foundations can be used to improve schools. Includes engaging portraits of progressive urban schools that showcase the qualities of the leaders that guide them. Demonstrates the power of a progressive and humanistic education for children of color and for those from lower-income backgrounds.