Review by Choice Review
Schultz offers an alternative to the dominant paradigm of teaching as telling. Here, the focus on listening highlights the centrality of relationships in teaching. This work rests on the notion that teaching is improvisational, reciprocal, and responsive. Schultz asserts that teaching is complex and should resist standardization. This is a humane and personal glimpse into the teaching craft, and a much-needed counter to standards and high stakes testing. Her volume, based on 12 years of research examining K-12 teaching, establishes listening as a conceptual framework for teaching. Schultz's framework provides an examination of listening to know particular students; listening for the rhythm of the classroom; listening to social, cultural, and community contexts of students' lives; and listening for silence and acts of silencing in the classroom. Her in-depth case study approach richly portrays acts of listening by teachers and students in schools. Schultz offers an intimate illustration of teachers' use of listening to connect with disenfranchised students and to promote learning within diverse student groups. A powerful illustration of student empowerment via honoring student voice. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduate collections and above. P. S. Kelly Truman State University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
