There is a profound and deepening crisis afflicting secondary schools in most parts of the world - but at its essence it is a crisis of a very different kind from the one portrayed by the media, the business community, politicians, and policy makers. Just what constitutes the crisis is highly problematic. What is being constructed for us through a concerted «conservative assault» and a «new authoritarianism» is one of failure by young people, their schools, and their teachers. But as with any moral panic, there are undisclosed interests and agenda operating, and they are not those of the people most directly affected, in this case young people. This book tackles those myths head-on. Through a multi-layered portrait analysis of young lives, adult lives, and school lives this book shows how schools, teachers, and young people are re-inventing themselves against the damaging prevailing educational policy discourses. Teachers are «in the middle» in all kinds of ways - they are a group who are continually being disparaged, pilloried, and denigrated by politicians and the media; they are caught in the shifting tectonic plates of capitalism as schools are increasingly required to do economic work; and they are continually mediating the emotional, social, and intellectual intersections between schools, society, classrooms, and young lives. Teachers in the Middle provides a critique as well as hope and possibility as schools engage pedagogically with the maelstrom in which they find themselves. There is a profound and deepening crisis afflicting secondary schools in most parts of the world ¿ but at its essence it is a crisis of a very different kind from the one portrayed by the media, the business community, politicians, and policy makers. Just what constitutes the crisis is highly problematic. What is being constructed for us through a concerted «conservative assault» and a «new authoritarianism» is one of failure by young people, their schools, and their teachers. But as with any moral panic, there are undisclosed interests and agenda operating, and they are not those of the people most directly affected, in this case young people. This book tackles those myths head-on. Through a multi-layered portrait analysis of young lives, adult lives, and school lives this book shows how schools, teachers, and young people are re-inventing themselves against the damaging prevailing educational policy discourses. Teachers are «in the middle» in all kinds of ways ¿ they are a group who are continually being disparaged, pilloried, and denigrated by politicians and the media; they are caught in the shifting tectonic plates of capitalism as schools are increasingly required to do economic work; and they are continually mediating the emotional, social, and intellectual intersections between schools, society, classrooms, and young lives. Teachers in the Middle provides a critique as well as hope and possibility as schools engage pedagogically with the maelstrom in which they find themselves. Introduction ix Acknowledgments xiii Glossary xv Part One. An Orientation to the Study 1(34) Setting the scene 3(12) The research issue 3(1) Our frames of reference 4(2) Teachers in the middle 6(2) The promise of middle schooling 8(1) The project schools 9(1) Research design and methodology 10(2) Representing schools and teachers' and students' lives 12(1) The organization of this book 12(3) Taking account of the context 15(20) Introduction 15(1) The Australian educational landscape 16(1) Public education policy 17(2) School portraits 19(12) Plainsville School 19(2) Broadvale K--12 Community School 21(2) New Vista Community School 23(3) Seachange High School 26(2) Investigator High School 28(3) Gulfview Secondary School 31(2) Closing remarks 33(2) Part Two. Young Lives 35(60) Making adolescence everybody's business 37(24) Introduction 37(2) A young person's perspective 39(4) Becoming somebody: adolescent identity 43(2) Growing up in a risk society 45(1) Confronting difference 46(3) Class rules okay? 49(1) They call them `povs' 49(3) Poverty and educational disadvantage 52(1) Blame the victim 53(2) Who is a `good' teacher? 55(3) Conclusions 58(3) Steering school reform back to students 61(34) Introduction 61(2) Supportive relationships: nurturing an ethos of care and trust 63(6) Broadening horizons: opening doors for young people 69(4) Negotiating the curriculum: student-centered learning 73(10) Generative themes: Investigator High School 74(1) Student-initiated curriculum: Plainsville School 75(8) Having a say: student voice in action 83(2) Engaging with the community: capacity building 85(4) Tapping into `funds of knowledge': insights from Plainsville School 85(3) Community connections program: Broadvale R--12 Community School 88(1) Critical literacies: reading the word and the world 89(4) Closing remarks 93(2) Part Three. Adult Lives 95(72) Teachers reinventing themselves . . . for kids! 97(42) Introduction 97(1) Working against the policy discourse 98(2) Class matters 100(2) Middle school pedagogy: a class response 102(2) It is about relationships 104(2) Enabling conditions for learning 106(1) Learning as an engaging activity 107(30) Connectedness 111(3) Care and respect 114(6) Belongingness in `active learning communities' 120(5) Technologies of inclusion and exclusion: insights from Broadvale Community School 125(2) Technologies of exclusion: `we've become tougher on kids' 127(2) Foucault and the regulation of the subject 129(1) Exclusionary structures 130(1) School behavior management: the politics of crisis management 130(2) Student behavior management at Broadvale Community School: `three strikes and you're out' 132(5) Concluding remarks 137(2) Transformative pedagogy for students 139(28) Introduction 139(3) Transformative pedagogy: rethinking the fundamentals 142(3) Teaching for an identity: professional identity as argument 145(7) Teaching as a social practice 152(7) Teaching for an `educative community' 159(5) Closing remarks 164(3) Part Four. School Lives 167(40) Schools reinventing themselves for young adolescents 169(28) Introduction 169(2) The reform imperative 171(3) Whole-school change 174(1) Reinventing an existing high school 175(6) Leadership 176(2) Staffing matters 178(1) Collaboration 178(1) Acting politically and strategically 179(1) Policy and practice mismatch 180(1) Reinventing school from the ground up 181(7) A license to be innovative 182(1) Curriculum coherence 183(1) Learning communities and integrated curriculum 183(1) Tensions and dilemmas 184(1) What is the education system up to? 185(3) The impermanence of reform 188(1) Reinventing schooling as a seamless transition 188(7) A networked collaborative community 189(1) Administration and leadership 190(1) Curriculum coherence 191(1) Thinking curriculum 192(3) Concluding comments 195(2) Toward the pedagogically engaged school 197(10) Introduction 197(4) School culture 201(1) Pedagogy, teaching and learning 201(2) School structure 203(2) So, what is going on here? 205(2) Appendices 207(2) References 209(14) Index 223