Teacher professional development requires a dynamic vision of education. The authors argue that teaching and teacher education are moral rather than technical or instrumental endeavors, and describe a highly innovative master's program for practicing teachers founded in 1992. By describing important aspects of the program, the authors demonstrate that a moral vision can be enacted in practice, despite many constraints and challenges. They also show that any serious attempt to change practice will, of course, be unwieldy, contentious, and subject to sudden shocks and reversals as well as successes.

The work also provides a compelling and detailed account of the institutional and political conditions in higher education that militate against innovations in teacher education and professional development. Authors of the chapters include the former director of the innovation, the faculty who were involved in teaching and administering the program, and teachers who studied with them. Each chapter examines the practices pedagogically, ideologically, morally, and professionally through the perspectives of people intimately involved with the program.

This book's most important goal is to explore styles of teaching and learning that can promote resiliency among women from disadvantaged backgrounds. These findings can be useful in affecting policy decisions as professionals begin the process of restructuring our educational system to meet the needs of a diverse student population. Higher education is now attempting to attract and encourage varied students and this book will provide educators with information not only about how to educate women from difficult backgrounds, but how women in this population have felt about their past, their success, and their schooling. The author provides insights into what disadvantaged women need and want from schools.

The author conducted in-depth interviews with 21 academically high achieving women who were also disadvantaged as children, having faced multiple risk factors. Qualitative measures were used to explore how our education system has either assisted these women in their achievement or set up barriers to their success. The interpretations, however, go beyond simply listing what was good and bad in these women's education experiences. The results suggest patterns in their psychology and in the traditional social structures that discourage learning among certain populations. The author discusses the sociological and psychological barriers to education (especially higher education) for women who have experienced disadvantages.