Cambridge University Press The Work and Lives of Teachers: A Global Perspective

The Work and Lives of Teachers offers a simple but original argument: that the cultural attitudes toward the teaching profession measurably influence how students perform. Cohen uses both ethnographic portraits and personal accounts from teachers for several countries to explore the meaning and value of teaching worldwide. This study includes the ways in which teachers in these countries are educated, recruited, compensated, and perceived by parents, students, administrators, and the culture at large. Teachers' voices, so rarely heard in international educational studies, are front and center here, highlighting the daily work in the classroom and the pleasures and struggles of engaging in today's teaching profession. The lesson, briefly stated, is that societies are only as good as the people who teach in them. Review 'This is an outstanding book, every page is interesting and valuable; at times, informative, emotional, fascinating and at other times gently humorous.' Gifted Education International Book Description This book shows the ways that cultural attitudes toward the teaching profession influence how students perform across the globe. About the Author Rosetta Marantz Cohen is a professor in the Department of Education and Child Study at Smith College, Massachusetts, where she holds the Sylvia D'luglasch Bauman Chair in American Studies. She has served as Director of the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute at Smith College, and was Director of the Smith College Internship Program at the Smithsonian Museum. She received her BA in English, magna cum laude, from Yale University, Connecticut, her MFA in Poetry from Columbia University, New York, and her EdD in Curriculum and Instruction from Teachers College, Columbia. She is the author of four books on American school reform and the history of the teaching profession, as well as a prize-winning chapbook of poetry. She was the recipient of an AKP fellowship in Japan, where she researched secondary education. In addition, she has served on the board of the John Dewey Society, on Women's Education Worldwide (WEW), and was part of a team that worked to design the first liberal arts women's college in Malaysia.