ABSTRACT
Kurt Lewin, among the greatest of 20th century scholars of social development, analyzed every educational setting from the perspective of the child as a potential opportunity and challenge, as a motivating or inhibiting social current. In the epigraph above, Lewin portrays that current as a social atmosphere critical to student success. How might teachers, he asks, direct the social atmosphere of their classrooms toward learning and away from disruption? Th e situation Lewin describes still holds true today: educational practitioners who strive to cultivate a positive social atmosphere rely as much on “trial and error” or “philosophy and instinct” as on scientifi cally evaluated practices. A goal of our current research is to help change this state of aff airs by developing new ways of thinking about and practicing “social management in education.”
