Classroom decisions are ethically significant. Increasingly, U.S. teachers and students are pressured to follow rules. Drawing on the works of Hannah Arendt, I argue that to make ethical decisions, teachers need to think. To make this claim, I first describe the current emphasis on rules. I then give an overview of Arendt's arguments regarding…

This article seeks to build on current and emerging conceptions of teacher expertise as they relate to education for civic engagement and social awareness in the university classroom context. I explore the notion of teaching tensions between vulnerability and authority, authenticity and distance, safety and challenge, disclosure and neutrality,…

Preparing novice teachers to manage the broad array of educational decisions and day-to-day problems inherent in classroom teaching is an ongoing challenge. This article describes a model of student-initiated, case-based pedagogy, in the form of Basket Cases, implemented in an English education methods class and interprets the results. Exploring…