A compelling and thoroughly readable account of two middle schools—one urban and one suburban—that attempt to build communities which will foster student growth and learning. This book shatters prevailing beliefs and furthers our understanding of the ways in which teachers’ relationships impact their work and their lives in schools.

“This is no once-over-lightly piece of research. . . . [Joel Westheimer] leaves in tatters the tapestry of rhetoric that has been woven by reformers around the idea that all teacher communities are alike and that building them requires only a few hardy souls with moxie and determination.”
—From the Foreword by Larry Cuban, Stanford University

“Westheimer’s account is at once passionate and analytic, critical and empathic. It is exactly the kind of rendering of schools we need for our own democratic dialogue as scholars.”
—Suzanne M. Wilson, Michigan State University

“Timely and informative. . . . This is an important book for both teachers and policy makers.”
—Nel Noddings, Stanford University

“Joel Westheimer takes us beyond the rhetoric of community as something necessarily sunny and succulent, revealing both the conceptual limits and the daily difficulties of community-building as a strategy for reform. . . . If we are propelled to act, [his] charting of this tricky terrain will be a useful map, an essential guide to survival.”
—William Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago