What's Worth Fighting for Out There?

by Andy P. Hargreaves, Michael Fullan, Michael Hargreaves, Andy; Fullan

This final book in the invaluable What's Worth Fighting For? trilogy concludes that the relationship between those in the school and those outside it must be fundamentally reframed. In a world of growing complexity and rapid change, if educators are going to bring about significant improvements in teaching and learning within schools, they must forge strong, open, and interactive connections with communities beyond them. To do this, the authors...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807737526
• ISBN13: 9780807737521
• Release Date: February 1998
• Publisher: Teachers College Press
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Educational book

Book was ordered for a Master's course in Education. It is easy to follow and understandable. It is meant to be used with the other 2 books in the trilogy of "What's worth fighting for...". Interesting and practical, it discusses the subject of confronting current educational issues and how to turn things around in the direction that education has been going, in order for it to become what it is meant to be. It is also informative and to the point on how to get these possible changes put into place in today's world.

Grass Roots Educational Reform--It's Worth Fighting For!

Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan have constructed a great book identifying many key topics educators need to keep in focus as we continue our quest each day to meet the needs of student learners across our great Nation. "What's Worth Fighting for Out There?" is an outstanding book that allows the reader to re-connect with the important things in Education. I would propose this to be a grass roots campaign to get back to the basics and address the basic needs of students, staff, parents, and community as they relate to a quality education. Hargreaves and Fullan propose that we need to Go Wider (Chapter #3) to develop new and more solid relationships with the stakeholders of each School Districts' educational movement. Going Deeper (Chapter #2) focuses the script to the actual teaching processes and refinement to include deep passion and emotion. This passion and emotion I believe are represented well in Chapter #2 as the narrative explains the importance of one adult caring for a child each day and that impact of keeping students from dropping out of school. As an educator of several years, I have found that building solid relationships with students, parents, and community are very important to your mission of teaching and learning and ultimately directly impact students in a positive manner. Building these relationships takes time and energy-all of which is worth the output. I am sure many readers would argue that this book is one in which the basic concepts are already known by educators and of no importance. I would counter that with the fact that I believe this is a very strong statement by Hargreaves and Fullan to re-introduce these key concepts as the basics for future educational advancements. The continued identification of these key concepts to me reinforce the fact that we need to take control of the situations identified to create teaching and learning environments for all of our student learners. Dryden (1995) notes that: "so much is going on in each kid's life, every story is so complicated". Students are often disengaged from their own learning, and it is enormously difficult for teachers to enter their world. I would like to challenge all educators to read this book and use the advice of Dryden. Eliminate the complicated stories in your classrooms and your schools and get back to the basics of creating award winning educational systems for teaching and learning from a grass roots movement that we ALL can have an impact on. "What's Worth Fighting for Out There?" is a must read-if you want to change education in your school and community! A good school is the price of peace in the community (Ursula Franklin, 1997).

FULLAN and HARGREAVES KEEP HOPE ALIVE

WHAT'S WORTH FIGHTING for OUT THERE is a must read for anyone and everyone who wants to understand the plight of education in today's schools. The book is not just limited to U.S. schools, it also examines schools around the world such as England and Canada. These schools and their teachers share similiar issues and concerns. The book focuses more on process but does give specific reasons why the various publics: teachers, principals, parents and the community must come together and form a collaborative coalition when approaching policymakers who decide the legislation that guides or in many cases mandates a certain educational practice. In recent years the overriding consensus is that these "mandates" are passed down to schools with little or no funding to implement them.This in turn leads to high levels of frustration and disconnect between education and the public. WHAT'S WORTH FIGHTING for OUT THERE addresses these frustrations and explores how each group can develop and nurture positive relationships, to not only clear up misconceptions but also to be on the same page. The ultimate goal is to provide effective instruction to our nation's and world's most valuable resources-our children. The book is filled with practical information that is based in research from a vast collection of educators and practitioners.Page 6 of the book outlines the problems that we face in education. They contend that these issues are the reasons why schools need to connect more effectively with the wider world beyond them. Emotional intelligence is mentioned throughout the book. Fullan and Hargreaves argue that schools do not pay enough attention to to this concept. It is not an option in schooling to neglect this. They go on to say that emotional intelligence adds value to cognitive achievement and subsequent success in adult life. What drew me to this book was the title "WHAT'S WORTH FIGHTING for OUT THERE." It appealed to me because as an educator I feel that we have to continously stand up and fight to communicate to the public our daily tasks. A great example is on page 82. The authors discuss the changing profession of teaching. They say that teaching as a profession has not come of age. It is not simply the view of the 1960's when teaching was seen as a demanding but not technically difficult. You prepared for class, taught it and marked papers afterwards. It didn't take long to learn to teach and once you'd prepared for it, you knew how to do it the rest of your career.You relied on experience and intuition to do it well. This is an outdated image of teaching, yet it is still widespread and influential among the wider public.This misconception is based upon the kind of teaching they( public members) remember when they were in school. This notion leads to questions such as:"if teaching is not that difficult, why not cut back on teacher's resources, levels of support and time away from the classroom? Everybody else has cut back-perhaps

A fighting start

I liked the book and the message the authors sent. It was probably too elementary for most, but for me it generated ideas in my mind that inspired me to think more indepth about the educational system. I felt the authors brought into their book the concepts of numerous changes through numerous entities. Diversity, technology, democracy, love, empowerment, cooperation, collaboration, and a number of other ideas were discussed. We know as educators the positive effects of those ideas, but we still accept the traditional school day which does not necessarily support those ideas. As educators it is time to put our foot down and really take what Fullan and Hargreaves have to say to heart. Changes cannot occur as separate little entities with individuals making them work. It takes a number of changes to make a difference and a number of individuals working together to make a difference. If there is anything I got from the book, it is the idea that there is hope if we make something happen. Restructuring the schools to include ALL of the ideas with ALL of society is a task in itself, but it needs to be done.Maybe it was the short read that allowed me to think more indepth. Maybe it was the opportunity for me to set the book down and think about what I had read that allowed me to generate ideas from the book. Most things in the book are simple, but to me they were highly meaningful. If you are looking for THE ANSWER, this isn't the book for you, but if you are looking for some inspiration to think about the answers, it may be a good choice.

Is it worth fighting for?

WhatÕs Worth Fighting for Out There is about school reform. It examines the aspects and elements of change for teachers, administrators, community, parents, and government. The authorsÕ main idea for change comes from the concept of hope. The book is "ultimately about developing life-lines of hope with all those teachers, students, and communities who are desperately seeking a way forward." This book urges teachers to take an active role in reforming or changing their schools.The book is divided into four areas. The first describes the state of teaching, and provides reasons why schools need to connect to the larger community. This expresses what Ôout thereÕ is about: extending to the world around us. The second area is about going deeper. It examines the need for teachers to have a purpose for transforming learning in children, to exhibit passion and emotion, and lastly to hope. In the section about purpose, the authorsÕ quote Daniel Goleman frequently as they discuss his ideas about emotional intelligence. The third area is about going wider, how we move into the community and world around us. How do we build connections, relationships, and partnerships with the world around us is addressed. Lastly, the book ends as we Ôget out thereÕ. This sections provides guidelines for doing so, and it is broken into guidelines for teachers, principles, parents, and governments. It begins with what is called the strategy of hope, then expanding into guidelines.Throughout this book, many insightful ideas are presented to the reader on the aspects of change. The point is clear. Reforming schools is not easy and requires participation from all parties (teachers, administrators, community, parents, and government). But for the teacher, it is all about hope. Is it worth fighting for?