8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best Andy Hargreaves yet!, June 8, 2003
This review is from: Teaching in the Knowledge Society: Education in the Age of Insecurity (Professional Learning) (Paperback)
Andy Hargreaves's new book is a best seller.
I am always impressed by that uncommon trait of commonsense in Hargreaves's writing. In the 1990s writing on learning organisations was very topical. However at the turn of the century learning communities and learning societies took precedence.
Pearls of wisdom abound throughout the book:
In the Introduction Hargreaves draws the links between living in a knowledge economy and a knowledge society.
The knowledge economy primarily serves the private good. The knowledge society also encompasses the public good. Our school have to prepare young people for both of them (Hargreaves, 2003, p.1)
Hargreaves also points out that the term "knowledge society" is a misnomer and argues that a more appropriate term is learning society (Hargreaves, 2003, p.3).
Hargreaves describes teaching as a paradoxical profession where teachers are expected to help create a knowledge society and at the same time right the wrongs that pervade modern western communities. In a very quotable section Hargreaves discusses the different approaches of his dentist and teachers towards professional development.
In dealing with insecurity and Hargreaves notes that loyalty between the worker and the company has been replaced with contracts.
Hargreaves's warning that curriculum standards compromise teachers' options:
The micromanagement of standards-based reform has deleterious effects on teachers' teaching, on teachers' students and on teachers' relationship to their work and with one another (Hargreaves, 2003, p.90).
This is a great book. It is well written and eloquent. Leaders should be readers, and Andy Hargreaves's new book makes professional reading engaging and interesting. Well done Andy Hargreaves.
Teachers College Press is to be congratulated on adding Andy Hargreaves to their list of authors. This book will help put TCP back into a field of educational excellence alongside Jossey-Bass and Corwin Press.
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1 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Marxist speaks out ?, December 20, 2005
This review is from: Teaching in the Knowledge Society: Education in the Age of Insecurity (Professional Learning) (Paperback)
In his last book, Andrew (Andy) Hargreaves takes us through the dark alley of modern education. At the end of the alley, shines his promised land of Marxism. Hargreaves political views are cleverly disguised, but still obvious. He never speaks of a Marxist society, but instead uses jargons such as "beyond the knowledge society", "social mission" and "cosmopolitan identity".
The kowledge society and related terms, such as knowledge worker and knowledge economy, were created by Peter F. Drucker and appeared in his 1969 book "The Age of Discontinuity". In his 1999 book "Management Challenges for the 21st Century", Drucker has following to say:
"Knowledge workers are rapidly becoming the largest single group in workforce of every developed country. They may already comprise two-fifths of the U.S. workforce - and a still smaller but rapidly growing proportion of the workforce of all other developed countries. It is on their productivity, above all, that the future prosperity and indeed the future survival of the developed economies will increasingly depend." (page.141).
Drucker is absolutely right, that the knowledge society aready exists, but Hargreaves eyes are focused on the society beyond, which in his opinion clearly belongs to the Marxist ideology. Following quotations make this abuntantly clear:
"Teaching beyond the knowledge society means developing a cosmopolitan identity that can build chains of caring for those who are out of sight but should never be out of mind." (page.48).
"Teaching exclusively beyond the knowledge society cultivates caring, develops character and builds cosmopolitan identity." (page.52).
"We have seen that standardized educational reform has made it almost impossible for many teachers to teach either for the knowledge society or beyond it as part of a broader social mission." (page.162).
What is the social mission of the teaching profession ? Hargreaves emphasizes this aspect of teaching:
"Teachers and others must now dedicate themselves to bringing together these two missions of teaching for the knowledge society and beyond it - making it the pinnacle of their professional purpose." (page.52).
"The standardized reforms of Ontario education offer only disincentives and discouragement to those who see their work as being about teaching beyond the knowledge economy and about creating values for good. They are squeezing the social mission out of teaching." (page.96).
As previously noted, one of the expressions that Hargreaves uses instead of Marxism is "cosmopolitan identity". In true Marxistic fashion, he keeps on striking the hot iron:
"This is what teaching beyond the knowledge society must address: developing cosmopolitan identity and humanitarian responsibility at home as well as abroad." (page.35).
"Teachers and others, therefore, must think not only of how to teach for the knowledge society, but also of how to teach beyond it, so we address other compelling human values and educational purposes in addition to those that make a profit - purposes concerned with character, community, democracy and cosmopolitan identity." (page.43).
It is disturbing, that Hargreaves goes so far out on the Marxist limb, that his book is more of a political declaration, than an analysis of education. I believe that John Locke (1632-1704), Auguste Comte (1798-1857) and John Dewey (1859-1952) would have agreed with me.
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