Community, Diversity, and Conflict Among Schoolteachers

Using richly textured case studies of two very different schools, Betty Achinstein shows that when teachers enact reforms in the name of community what often emerges is conflict. Whether dealing with issues of teacher collaboration or how to meet the needs of a diverse student population, conflicts within professional communities reflect important differences of beliefs and practices. This book reframes conflict as constructive in building educational communities that learn and promote democratic values in schools.

Betty Achinstein is Program Director of Teacher Development and Research at The New Teacher Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"Here is a must-read book for policymakers and practitioners interested in creating and sustaining professional communities in schools."
—Larry Cuban, Stanford University

"Achinstein shows that conflict is a ‘hopeful act’ and essential element of a healthy professional community. Community, Diversity, and Conflict Among Schoolteachers
makes a fundamental contribution to our understanding of strong professional community."
– Milbrey McLaughlin, David Jacks Professor of Education and Public Policy,
Stanford University

"This important study shows dramatically how complex and difficult it is to build democratic communities. There are tough lessons here from which all community builders should profit."
—Nel Noddings, Stanford University

“This book makes a timely and powerful contribution to theory, research, and practice by uncovering the roles that conflict and dissent play in shaping professional community… and how this matters for the kinds of schools that teachers and students will inhabit.”
—Judith Warren Little, Graduate School of Education, University
of California at Berkeley.

"Unsentimental yet deeply passionate….Those interested in discovering how to embrace conflict in a developing teacher community will find this book both compelling and enlightening."
—Joel Westheimer, New York University