Teacher Work and Teacher Unions

This site, named Mindworkers, is witness to my central belief that teachers think for a living, and ought to be organized as professional workers with expansive rights and responsibilities rather than industrial workers. This theme is most completely developed in United Mind Workers: Unions and Teaching in the Knowledge Society. Although it was published by […]

‘Learning from L.A.: Institutional Change in American Public Education’

It has been nearly a decade since Learning from L.A. was published by Harvard Education Press. In many ways, it is among the best work I have done in my academic career. In some other ways, it is a disappointing, blowing-into-the-wind book because the underlying message has not been received or acted upon. The politics […]

Teacher-Run Schools

Teacher run schools fascinate me as a special case of producer’s cooperatives. They are experiments in self-organization, alternatives to traditional hierarchies, expansion of traditional teacher roles, and over time the re-creation of role specialization. The first piece in this series is a case study of Avalon School in St. Paul, MN and schools in Milwaukee. […]

The Emperor’s Clothes: Traditional and “Avant Garde” at High Tech High

Author: Charles Taylor Kerchner – High Tech High may be the only school in the country that has an Emperor. Rob Riordan took the tongue-and-cheek title of “emperor of rigor” partly to address the expectations of visitors looking for someone in authority and partly as a serious joke, a conversation starter about how HTH views […]

Learning 2.0: The Next Generation of Education

In January 2012, I posted The Politics of Learning 2.0: From Governance to Capacity Building and offered thanks and acknowledgement to the Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation for their financial support of the research leading up to it. This report is the last of the pieces planned as part of the project. However, there are more recent blog […]

The California Virtual Academy

Authors: Laura Steen Mulfinger and Charles Taylor Kerchner – The California Virtual Academy (CAVA) joins similar schools in other states as a growing presence in public education. This case study examines the operations and structure of CAVA and its corporate parent, K-12. The full case is available by clicking here.

God’s Politics: A Personal Introduction

In 2010, I gave a talk that grew out of reading Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics, relating it to the prophets in my own life, not all of whom were overtly religious. Here’s the text.

‘Distrupting Class’, The Internet, and the End of Batch Processing

Disrupting Class is a most provocative book, in part for its bold prediction that by the end of the decade half of high school classes will be taught with via computers and smart software. If the authors are even half right, the change will be sweeping. But the book should not be read as a text […]

For Teacher Unions: Things That Go Bump In The Night

Author: Charles Taylor Kerchner – Two forces will fundamentally change public education and deeply challenge the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. I will describe them, and then, I will pull the long-legged beasties out from under the bed, and try to show that they can, indeed, be your friends. Both these […]

Firing Bad Teachers, Just Try

The sound you hear is the lid being pried off Pandora’s Box. Jason Song’s Los Angeles Times investigation of efforts to dismiss teachers in California makes public what practicing educators have known for decades: that it is almost impossible to fire a tenured public school faculty member for teaching badly. Song’s articles are the most viewed on the Times web site […]

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'On California' at EdWeek.org

I have concluded my opinion blog on the Golden State's politics and education policies at EdWeek.org. An archive of the 281 posts can be reached by clicking HERE

Learning 2.0

Learning 2.0 is the next full scale version of public education, one that builds on the capacity of the Internet age.

The five elements of Learning 2.0 are explained by clicking HERE:

Mixing acquisition of knowledge and practice, head and hands.
An individual education plan for everyone.
Understanding that students are the real workers in the education system.
Unbundle teaching, testing, and mentoring.
Add collaboration and solving tough, ambiguous problems to the list of basic skills.

Recent Projects

Teacher Work and Teacher Unions
‘Learning from L.A.: Institutional Change in American Public Education’
Teacher-Run Schools

Currently Reading

About

Charles Taylor Kerchner is an Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow at Claremont Graduate University. My daily musings appear in the blog. The archives of my EdWeek blog are available via link under the 'On California' head. Some of my photography can be seen by clicking on 'Gallery.' And numerous links to academic work and other research and commentary can be found by clicking on 'Projects.'

Mindworkers

Charlet T. Kerchner / MindWorkers