Schooling, Democracy, and the Quest for Wisdom ― Partnerships and the Moral Dimensions of Teaching

In response to growing concern in the 1980s about the quality of public education across the United States, a tremendous amount of energy was expended by organizations such as the Holmes Group and the Carnegie Forum to organize professional development schools (PDS) or “partner schools” for teacher education. On the surface, the concept of partnering is simple; however, the practice is very costly, complex, and difficult. In Schooling, Democracy, and the Quest for Wisdom, Robert V. Bullough, Jr. and John R. Rosenberg examine the concept of partnering through various lenses and they address what they think are the major issues that need to be, but rarely are, discussed by thousands of educators in the U.S. who are involved and invested in university-public school partnerships. Ultimately, they assert that the conversation around partnering needs re-centering (most especially on the purposes of public education), refreshing, and re-theorizing.

ROBERT V. BULLOUGH, JR. is a professor of teacher education and the associate director of the Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education and Schooling at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He is also an emeritus professor of educational studies at the University of Utah. Bullough is the author of many titles, including Essays on Teaching Education and the Inner Drama of Teaching: Where Troubles Meet Issues.

JOHN R. ROSENBERG is the Washington Irving Professor of Spanish and American Relations at Brigham Young University. He served for ten years as dean of the College of Humanities and is currently the associate director of Brigham Young’s faculty development center. He is the author of several titles, including The Black Butterfly: Concepts of Spanish Romanticism.