Evolution, Creationism, and the Battle to Control America's Classrooms

Shows that it is individual educators who often make critical decisions about what children are taught about evolution.

Auteur

Michael Berkman is Professor of Political Science at the Pennsylvania State University. He is the author (with Eric Plutzer) of Ten Thousand Democracies: Politics and Public Opinion in America's School Districts (2005) and articles appearing in such journals as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, and PLoS Biology. He currently serves on the editorial board of the American Journal of Education, and is a graduate of the Ardsley and the NY public school system.

Résumé
Michael Berkman and Eric Plutzer illuminate who really controls what children are taught in school. Based on their innovative survey of 926 high school biology teachers they show that the real power often lies with individual educators who make critical decisions in their own classrooms.

Contenu

Introduction; 1. Who should decide what children are taught?; 2. The public speaks: 'teach both'; 3. A nation divided by religion, education, and place; 4. Is evolution fit for polite company?: science standards in the American states; 5. Teachers and what they teach; 6. State standards meet street level bureaucracy; 7. When the personal becomes pedagogical; 8. Teachers in their schools and communities; 9. The battle for America's classrooms.