Barbara S. Stengel is Professor Emerita in the Practice of Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University, USA. She is the author of three books including Just Education (1991), Moral Matters (2006) and Toward Anti-Oppressive Teaching (2020). Dr. Stengel is a former President of the Philosophy of Education Society and current President of the John Dewey Society.
Responsibility offers an accessible entry point for practitioners who are dissatisfied with the factory model of public schooling and want to create schools with heart, but don’t know where to start. Stengel’s philosophical discussion, together with narratives from Bailey Middle School staff, provide a compelling account of how response-ability can positively shape a whole school’s culture. -- Ann Chinnery, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Canada A leading authority on pragmatism and education, Barbara Stengel expertly theorizes from her real-life experience in a so called failing school to show the difference responsibility (rather than accountability) makes in education. Her account is convincing and illuminating, exemplifying the potential of pragmatic philosophy in reckoning with the educational challenges of our times. -- Liz Jackson, Professor of International Education, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong