This provocative and accessible text is addressed to prospective and practicing teachers who believe schools must be fundamentally reformed to meet student needs in an information age. Drawing on interviews with frontline educators, the authors integrate descriptive accounts of learning and teaching in schools today with emerging multicultural curricula, information technologies, organizational structures that support innovations, and democratic dialogue. Jones and Maloy offer analytic perspectives for rethinking the social, historical, and philosophical foundations of education along with strategies for teacher renewal and organizational change.Adopting a constructivist-developmental approach to learning, the authors identify endemic dilemmas that increasingly handicap industrial-era schools. A stagnant economy heightens tensions due to class, race, and gender inequities. Hierarchically structured corporations and representative politics perpetuate business domination. Computers offer possibilities for more open communication, flexible organizations, and democratic discourse. Alternative visions of the future that engage students can renew cooperation, collaboration, and community in schools and society.

This thought-provoking text deals with critical issues and perspectives connected to future schools, presenting the views of historians, economists, sociologists, and educators on how multicultural communities can achieve democratic process and social justice.

IllustrationsPrefaceThinking about Future SchoolsSchools and SocietyLearning and Teaching in SchoolsWork, Well-being, and InformationPurposeful OrganizationsSocial Choices and Public PoliciesCooperating in Multicultural SettingsTransmitting Constructed KnowledgeProductive Schools and WorkplacesChoosing FuturesReferencesIndex