Stability and Change in American Education: Structure, Process, and
Outcomes
Robert Dreeben is one of the most widely read and influential
sociologists of education of the past half-century and the author of
several important books, one of which (the 1968 classic
On What Is
Learned in School) has recently been reprinted by Percheron Press.
In this volume inspired by Dreeben’s work and career, chapters written
by Dreeben’s colleagues, students, and even one of his mentors present
the latest academic research on schools and schooling and examine
recent and
ongoing school reform policies. The contributors address schooling and
socialization, school organization and effects, teaching as an
occupation, and other areas of sociology of education where Dreeben’s
research has had a profound impact.
Stability and Change in American Education reflects on
Dreeben’s influence and extends his work in many directions. It
also demonstrates the persistent importance of Dreeben’s work in
sociology of education and the relevance of his ideas for understanding
schools, teaching, and learning in the twenty-first century.
CONTENTS
Foreword by John W. Meyer
I. INTRODUCTION
Robert Dreeben’s Contributions to Sociology of Education
Adam Gamoran and Tom Loveless
II. SCHOOLING AND SOCIALIZATION
On What Is Learned in School: A Verstehen Approach
Aaron M. Pallas, Matthew Boulay, and Melinda Mechur Karp
The Problem of Classroom Goodwill
Charles E. Bidwell
Social Status versus Psychosocial Maturity as Predictors of School
Outcomes in Japan and the United States
Alex Inkeles and P. Herbert Leiderman
III. HOW SCHOOLS WORK: ORGANIZATION AND EFFECTS
How School Governance Works: The Implementation of Integrated Reform
in the Chicago Public Schools
Kenneth K. Wong
School Organization and Response to Systemic Breakdown
Maureen T. Hallinan
Tracking, Instruction, and Unequal Literacy in Secondary School English
Adam Gamoran and Sean Kelly
When Tensions Mount: Conceptualizing Classroom Situations and the
Conditions of Student-Teacher Conflict
Daniel A. McFarland
IV. TEACHING AS AN OCCUPATION
The Governance of Teaching and Standards-Based Reform from the 1970s
to the New Millennium
William A. Firestone
The Regulation of Teaching and Learning
Tom Loveless
V. SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION AS A FIELD OF INQUIRY
Sociology of Education: An Overview of the Field at the Turn of the
Twenty-First Century
Barbara Schneider
VI. CONCLUSION
Classrooms and Politics
Robert Dreeben
ISBN 0-9719587-8-5/paperback/approx. 270 pp./est. September 2003/$29.50
