Myers Education Press Getting to Where We Meant to Be: Working Toward the Educational World We Imagine/d

Review Getting to Where We Meant to Be is an insightful, thoughtful, and readable book well-suited for undergraduates in teacher education programs. The authors stimulate the reader's critical reflection on the assumptions they may hold about schools while also discussing social justice orientations and the importance of the relationship between public education and democracy.-- "Melanie Janzen for Teachers College Record (ID Number 22615)""This wonderful book, written for easy understanding, provokes the reader to rethink the decisions being made for the public schools.Through addressing general assumptions surrounding the public school, Hincheyand Konkol challenge readers to reconsider their understandings andexpectations about curriculum and school politics. ... (Read the full review in Multicultural Education, Spring/Summer 2018, Vol 25, No. 3-4)--H. Prentice Baptiste and Mika C. Leck "New Mexico State University, Las Cruces""If you'd like to see public education thrive, here is a book to bolster your arguments. Down-to-earth writing and excellent choice of content allow vitally important concepts about schooling in contemporary America to be analyzed and easily comprehended. It is one of the clearest discussions of curriculum issues and their meaning and importance for our teachers, schools, parents and yes, for our nation as well. Every schools' decision about curriculum is a decision about what's in and what's out of the knowledge base for students in their state or nation. This insightful and highly readable book explains why these decisions should never be made lightly."--David C. Berliner "Arizona State University"As any preservice teacher can attest, interrogating our taken-for-granted assumptions about education, teaching, and learning is a fundamental proposition in becoming an effective, quality teacher. Hence, this practice is embedded in many preservice teacher education courses and programs, in the attempt to develop preservice teachers' ability to think critically about teaching and learning. But what happens when preservice teachers move into the field and join the educational workforce? The practice of examining these assumptions remains crucial to the role and responsibilities of all stakeholders engaged in any education endeavor. Hinchey and Konkol's (2018) book, Getting to Where We Meant to Be, supports this key stance, making a strong case for the importance of reevaluating assumptions that currently dominate the education landscape in the hopes of clearly articulating our goals and determining whether or not our actions are placing us on a path to successfully achieving them. (Read the full review HERE.)--Rachel Ginsburg for The Educational Forum (2020), 84:2, 194-196,The value of this book lies in its detailed analysis of common assumptions related to the various futures imagined for K-12 education. The authors treat each of the assumptions with an even hand and bring a variety of important research into the conversation. At a minimum, this book is useful for early-career educators looking to understand the complexity of the U.S. system of education. Also, this volume would serve as an invaluable resource to schools, districts, or systems looking to either consider future directions or to understand the implications of some of the broader policy changes. Finally, the volume is useful for professionals working in higher education, looking to understand more about the education that students receive before they are admitted to college. In each area, the evenhanded and accessible style of Hinchey and Konkel provides exceptional value.--Ryan Korstange, Middle Tennessee State University, Education Review, Vol. 27 (2020)"Education is plagued with good intentions gone awry, particularly when the follow-through is framed by commonsensical assumptions that lack a sound research basis. Hinchey and Konkol paint a compelling and nuanced picture of exactly how this is happening in many core areas of schooling