Major "paradigm shifts"-replacing one "world view" with another regarding what constitutes appropriate knowledge do not happen over night. Centuries usually intervene in the process. Even minor shifts admitting alternative world views into the domain of legitimate knowledge producing theory and practice-require decades of controversy, especially, it seems to us, in the field of education. It has only been in the last 20 years or so that the educational research community has begun to accept the "scientific" credibility of the qualitative approaches to inquiry such as participant observation, case study, ethnogra phy, and the like. In fact, these methods, with their long and distinguished philosophical traditions in phenomenology, have really only come into their own within the last decade. The critical perspective on generating and evaluating knowledge and practice-what this book is mostly about-is in many ways a radical depar ture from both the more traditional quantitative and qualitative perspec tives. The traditional approaches, in fact, are far more similar to one another than they are to the critical perspective. This is the case, in our view, for one crucial reason: Both the more quantitative, empirical-analytic and qualitative, interpretive traditions share a fundamental epistemological commitment: they both eschew ideology and human interests as explicit components in their paradigms of inquiry. Ideology and human interests, however, are the "bread and butter" of a critical approach to inquiry."

The Beat of a Different Drummer: Essays on Educational Renewal in Honor of John I. Goodlad is a collection of essays by friends, colleagues, and scholars who have been profoundly influenced by Goodlad's seminal thinking and half century of research and scholarship on educational change and school improvement. With diversity in styles and topics, these writers contribute to this festschrift by focusing on one or more key ideas in Goodlad's work, while extending and complementing them in the context of their own research and scholarship. Although the primary purpose of this volume is to celebrate the work of one of America's preeminent educators, readers will find a series of provocative essays that will help to keep alive the essential conversation about the problems of, and hopes for, educational renewal in our democratic society.

Major "paradigm shifts"-replacing one "world view" with another regarding what constitutes appropriate knowledge do not happen over night. Centuries usually intervene in the process. Even minor shifts admitting alternative world views into the domain of legitimate knowledge producing theory and practice-require decades of controversy, especially, it seems to us, in the field of education. It has only been in the last 20 years or so that the educational research community has begun to accept the "scientific" credibility of the qualitative approaches to inquiry such as participant observation, case study, ethnogra phy, and the like. In fact, these methods, with their long and distinguished philosophical traditions in phenomenology, have really only come into their own within the last decade. The critical perspective on generating and evaluating knowledge and practice-what this book is mostly about-is in many ways a radical depar ture from both the more traditional quantitative and qualitative perspec tives. The traditional approaches, in fact, are far more similar to one another than they are to the critical perspective. This is the case, in our view, for one crucial reason: Both the more quantitative, empirical-analytic and qualitative, interpretive traditions share a fundamental epistemological commitment: they both eschew ideology and human interests as explicit components in their paradigms of inquiry. Ideology and human interests, however, are the "bread and butter" of a critical approach to inquiry."

Kenneth Sirotnik asserts that however well-intentioned, past and current accountability practices in public education are "miseducative, misdirected, and misanthropic." In this provocative book, well-respected educators join Sirotnik to provide critical analyses and sophisticated perspectives on prevailing high-stakes accountability practices. They offer both conceptual and practical foundations for rethinking what it means to act responsibly when it comes to calling our schools, school systems, educators, and students into account.