ABSTRACT
As the two previous volumes of this series, Culture and Teaching (Liston & Zeichner, 1996) and Gender and Teaching (Maher & Ward, 2002) have pointed out, in most democracies education is a publicly funded, statesupported endeavor. As a principal public institution, the nation’s schools are at the center of extensive and often strident discourse. Look and listen anywhere-in the articles and editorials of newspapers, on radio talk shows, at school board meetings or business round tables, in the halls of government, in the offices of social service agencies, or even in the aisles of your local supermarket. Everywhere, people come together, public education is the focus of debate and analysis. As teachers, we must be aware of and enter into these discussions wherever they occur. To do so adequately requires that we have informed opinions about the types of claims that are made about students, teachers, and the functions and purposes of education. Unfortunately, teacher education programs typically pay little attention to the external context of schools, although it is clear that they should. This volume, as part of a series on reflective practice, is part of the attempt to put larger societal issues into the core of teacher preparation.
