The Education We Need for a Future We Can't Predict
- Thomas Hatch - Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University and Director, National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, & Teaching (NCREST)
- Jordan Corson - Assistant Professor, Stockton University
- Sarah Gerth van den Berg - Curriculum Designer and Doctoral Candidate, Teachers College, Columbia University
Thomas Hatch with Jordan Corson and Sarah Gerth van den Berg
In order for educational systems to change, we must reevaluate deep-seated beliefs about learning, teaching, schooling, and race that perpetuate inequitable opportunities and outcomes. Hatch, Corson, and Gerth van den Berg challenge the narrative when it comes to the “grammar of schooling”--or the conventional structures, practices, and beliefs that define educational experiences for so many children—to cast a new vision of what school could be.
The book addresses current systemic problems and solutions as it:
- Highlights global examples of successful school change
- Describes strategies that improve educational opportunities and performance
- Explores promising approaches in developing new learning opportunities
- Outlines conditions for supporting wide-scale educational improvement
This provocative book approaches education reform by highlighting what works, while also demonstrating what can be accomplished if we redefine conventional schools. We can make the schools we have more efficient, more effective, and more equitable, all while creating powerful opportunities to support all aspects of students’ development.
"You won’t find a better book on system change in education than this one. We learn why schools don’t change; how they can improve; what it takes to change a system; and, in the final analysis, the possibilities of system change. Above all, The Education We Need renders complexity into clarity as the writing is so clear and compelling. A powerful read on a topic of utmost importance."
~Michael Fullan, Professor Emeritus, OISE/Universtiy of Toronto
"I cannot recommend this book highly enough – Tom tackles long-standing and emerging educational issues in new ways with an impressive understanding of the challenging complexities, but also feasible possibilities, for ensuring excellence and equity for all students."
~Carol Campbell, Associate Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Hatch has written a deeply personal and reflective book that weaves decades of personal and global research evidence with his own personal experience as a student, parent and scholar in different countries. As a result, The Education We Need provides a unique, timely and compelling argument for how lives within schools and education systems are inextricably linked to local and national context.
This book will be essential reading for my students!
A well written and well-argued book, bringing in the value of small scale changes in improving whole educational systems across the developed and developing world. It is healthily critical, reflective and humble while seeking to be constructive and ultimately optimistic, too. The book shows that educational transformation without social transformation is extremely unlikely on any significant scale, but that substantial improvement of what already exists is feasible, desirable and, of itself, can make significant contributions to equity.
Sample Materials & Chapters
Chapter 13 From Improvements to Movements
Key Principles of School Improvement
