This is the second and concluding part of the interview which Melissa Benn and Jane Martin conducted with Clyde Chitty in the summer of 2017. The first part appeared in the previous issue of the journal, "FORUM," 59(3). When Clyde stepped away from regular duties with the FORUM board, Michael Armstrong dubbed him "the patron saint…

This article explores how TCTELA's 2024 Teachers of the Year forged the future through their literacy teaching at the elementary, middle school, high school, and college levels. Each essay captures how they understand their work as literacy educators and intentionally educate their students toward a brighter future amid trying local contexts. The…

FORUM invited Melissa Benn and Jane Martin to interview Clyde Chitty, a brilliant and effective classroom and university teacher, one of the most well-known advocates of comprehensive education, a long-standing member of FORUM's editorial board, and for two decades co-editor of the publication. It was Michael Armstrong who called him 'the patron…

The policy reforms over the past 15 years have placed all the responsibility for reading achievement on teachers, with little, if any, support. What many have achieved is declining achievement in comparison with other countries. Moreover, there are increasing teacher shortages, as promising individuals choose other careers and teachers leave the…

Educators assess students' work and behavior every day. They are professional feedback-givers, dispensing grades, advice, support, and red ink. They believe in the power of feedback to communicate what students are doing well and how they can do better. However, some teachers shy away from opportunities for feedback on their own work. Some don't…

In this article, the author offers suggestions, based on the insightful article "The Three Rs of Professionalism" by Patricia H. Phelps ("Record" Winter 2006), for beginning teachers as they prepare for successful secondary classroom careers. As a professor of general secondary methods, the author emphasizes and has modeled the…

Like Gertrude Stein's rose, a teacher is a teacher is a teacher. And if one does it right, there is no job more honorable, more fulfilling, more necessary to the betterment of the world. Teachers are the people who love the acquisition of knowledge. Teachers teach because they love learning. In this article, the author discusses what it means to…

In this article, the author relates how a summer class he taught has reminded him of why he wanted to return to teaching. Having a master's degree in English and little training in the sciences, he relates how he had been reluctant at first to take up the high school geology class which was offered to him by a friend. However, during the course of…

This article debates three tensions within the contemporary teaching profession in Great Britain, in terms of education policy after the 1988 Education Reform Act. The first is between prospective and retrospective identities, as defined by Bernstein (1996/2000). The second is between teachers' expectations of professional status, and centralised…