The Moral Life of Schools

"This book is one of the very best ethnographic descriptions of interactive processes in the classroom I have ever read. . .no more final exams for teacher students without giving them this oeuvre as compulsory reading." (Educational Researcher)

"Convincingly argues that morality in school has less to do with object lessons than with nuance. . .Who we are, this invaluable book reminds us, imbues our teaching, which is why good teaching?that is moral teaching?must begin with self-scrutiny." (Teacher Magazine)

"Rarely have I come across a book that so quickly provoked me to re-examine my own classroom behavior. There is no place to hide in this careful scrutiny of the teacher as crucial player in the daily morality tale that becomes the story of school life." (Vivian Gussin Paley, teacher, University of Chicago Laboratory Schools)

"Jackson, Boostrom, and Hansen capture the ways in which classroom communities shape the hearts and minds of students and teachers alike in as full-bodied a fashion as Jackson's Life in Classrooms first recorded the pulse and passions of school life. The Moral Life of Schools is powerful reading for anyone concerned with the aims of education, with the inner lives of teachers and children, and with the most important foundations of our society--our ways of learning to live together." (Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of education, Teachers College, Columbia University)

"Jackson, Boostrom, and Hansen guide the reader engagingly into largely uncharted territory. The moral impact of schooling has traditionally been tackled by philosophers, absent the rich descriptions of classroom life offered here. This well-justified departure from traditional empirical research brings essential new insights about the culture of schools and classrooms." (Jeannie Oakes, professor, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles)