I began my academic career in foundations of education in 1972. At that time, the analytic philosophy movement held sway and was the cornerstone of meetings of the Philosophy of Education Society. I attended such meetings only sporadically, sensing that the dominant movement in the field dug a black hole in terms of what was going on in what Harry Broudy then called “the real world of the public schools.” 1 It was the start of a long marginalized sojourn in my chosen studies. Now, forty years later, I view the tail end of the postmodernist movement—and the same sinking feeling of marginalization erodes my existence. As one will note throughout this essay, it doesn’t have to be that way. The foundations of education can offer powerful lenses for educational change, but we need to be astute as to what we intend, how we study policy and practice, and what our audiences are. If we want to continue to talk to ourselves, analytic philosophy and postmodernism may be just fine (at least for some of our sisters and brethren). If we want to alter public conditions in school and society (which has been my paramount aim), we should go beyond such movements that the public will only continue to ignore. In a word, we should require more relevant substance—and action—from foundations of education. More positively, I hope to show how we can emerge as more consequential in helping save our profession—and creating a better “real world” for educational and social institutions.

Contents: Brett Elizabeth Blake: Theoretical Overview: Adolescent Culture and the Culture of Refusal - Katia Goldfarb: Is Included in the Urban Family? - Rebecca A. Goldstein: Who You Think I Am Is Not Necessarily I Think I Am: Multiple Positionalities of Urban Student Identities - Elizabeth Seaton: Tween Social and Biological Reproduction: Early Puberty in Girls - Mary K. Bentley: Body of Evidence: Dangerous Intersections between Development and Culture in the Lives of Adolescent Girls - Venus Evans-Winters: Urban African American Female Students and Educational Resiliency - Garrett Albert Duncan/Ryonnel Jackson: Making a Way Out of No Way: Black Male Students at City High School - Dennis Carlson: Between a Danger Zone and a Safe Space: LGBTQ Youth and the Challenge of Democratic Education - Thomas G. Reio, Jr.: What About Adolescent Curiosity and Risk Taking? - Pedro R. Portes/Daya S. Sandhu/Robert Longwell-Grice: Understanding Adolescent Suicide: A Psychological Interpretation of Developmental and Contextual Factors - Linda Irwin-DeVitis: Framing Adolescents, Their Schools and Culture: Contested Worldviews - Deirdre M. Kelly: Stigma Stories in the Media: Four Discourses about Teen Mothers, Welfare, and Poverty - Haroon Kharem: What Does It Mean to Be in a Gang? - Deron Boyles: Would You Like Values with That? Chick-fil-A and Character Education - Cynthia Lewis/Margaret Finders: Implied Adolescents and Implied Teachers: A Generation Gap for New Times - John Smyth: Adolescent Engagement, Connectedness and Dropping Out of School - Dana Griffin/Julia Bryan: Overcoming Negative School Experiences of African-American Adolescents: What School Counselors Can Do to Eradicate Ethnocentrism - Richard A. Gibboney: Why An Undemocratic Capitalism Has Brought Public Education to Its Knees - John H. Lounsbury: Deferred but Determined: A Middle School Manifesto - Douglas J. Simpson/Margaret Price: The Ideal High School for Future Adolescents: A Neo-Deweyan Perspective - Dan Bauer/Linda Golson Bradley/Lindell Dillon: Beyond Written Off: Surviving and Thriving Through Adolescent Literacy - Korina M. Jocson: Urban Youth Engaging Poetry and Creating Learning Communities - John A. Beineke: Teaching History to Adolescents - Kenneth Teitelbaum: Critical Civic Literacy in Schools: Adolescents Seeking to Understand and Improve The(ir) World - Susan L. Schramm-Pate/Richard Lussier: Teaching Students How to Think Critically: Confederate Flag Controversy in the High School Social Studies Curriculum - Jo Boaler: Urban Success: A Multidimensional Mathematics Approach with Equitable Outcomes - Thomas R. Koballa, Jr./Abdulkadir Demir: Making High School Science Instruction Effective - Jana Dean: Teaching About Global Warming in Truck Country - Melissa M. Jones: If You're Good at Nothin', What Are Ya Good For? Disability and Identity - Vanessa Domine: How Important Is Technology in Urban Education? - W. Norton Grubb: New Vocationalism: What It Is, What It Could Be - Tianlong Yu: Character Education for Adolescents: Pedagogy of Control - Jeff Claus/Curtis Ogden: An Empowering, Transformative Approach to Service - Camille Daniel-Tyson/Lianna Nix: Early College Concept: Building Hope for Students, Parents, Professionals and Community - Barbara J. Thayer-Bacon: How Can Caring Help? A Personalized Cross-Generational Examination of Violent Adolescent Experiences in Schools - Marcia Peck: a Person I'm Not Dirt!: Impact of Power Relationships on Perceptions of Caring in a Secondary Classroom - Nel Noddings: Talks with Teenagers and Teachers.

Educational TheoryVolume 48, Issue 2 p. 267-278 WHAT IS THIS WORK CALLED TEACHING? Linda Irwin-DeVitis, Linda Irwin-DeVitis Associate Professor of Education at Binghamton University. Her preferred mailing address is 107 Balford Dr., Oneonta, NY 13820. Her primary areas of scholarship are the gendered nature of the literacy curriculum and reading interests, and visual strategies that promote thinking and learning.Search for more papers by this authorJoseph L. DeVitis, Joseph L. DeVitis Professor of Education and Human Development at Binghamton University. His preferred mailing address is 107 Balford Dr., Oneonta, NY 13820. His primary areas of scholarship are moral development, educational policy, and service-learning.Search for more papers by this author Linda Irwin-DeVitis, Linda Irwin-DeVitis Associate Professor of Education at Binghamton University. Her preferred mailing address is 107 Balford Dr., Oneonta, NY 13820. Her primary areas of scholarship are the gendered nature of the literacy curriculum and reading interests, and visual strategies that promote thinking and learning.Search for more papers by this authorJoseph L. DeVitis, Joseph L. DeVitis Professor of Education and Human Development at Binghamton University. His preferred mailing address is 107 Balford Dr., Oneonta, NY 13820. His primary areas of scholarship are moral development, educational policy, and service-learning.Search for more papers by this author First published: 25 January 2005 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5446.1998.00267.xCitations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume48, Issue2June 1998Pages 267-278 RelatedInformation