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This essay by Dirck Roosevelt and Jim Garrison seeks to reclaim the lost soul of teaching by examining distortions wrought upon or threatening it by practice-based teacher education (PBTE) and like developments. The notion that teaching centers upon mastery of "core" practices understood as routinely skilled performance is inadequate to the almost intractable complexity of teaching. After critiquing PBTE and associated forces, especially the performance assessment edTPA™, Roosevelt and Garrison turn to John Dewey's notion of the teacher as "inspirer and director of soul-life." Among other important attributes involved in forming the soul of inspirational teaching, the authors discuss moral perception of the needs, desires, and interests of unique individuals participating in specific situations, and also moral imagination, which allows teachers to see beyond the actual to conceive better possibilities. Roosevelt and Garrison conclude with depictions of two student-teachers, one troubled by her inability to hear the souls of students and another experiencing the loss of his teaching soul.

There are a multitude of powerful cultural archetypes and images of the school teacher. These include nurturing caregiver, guardian of morality, champion of the global economy, self-sacrificing do-gooder, cultural worker, intellectual, tyrant, and many more metaphors. Jim Garrison's essay introduces another figure, a mythological persona, to the pantheon of images depicting the school teacher--the Trickster. Tricksters are masters of multiple interpretation that cross, bend, break, and redefine borders. Garrison concentrates on prophetic tricksters that create openings in closed structures to reveal hidden possibilities. In practice, many teachers are tricksters. They know how to maneuver in, around, and through rigid bureaucratic structures and standards to connect with their students and make a difference while exercising creative autonomy in the classroom. Garrison's essay provides examples of trickster teachers drawn from literature depicting classroom practice.

Presents a critical-creative appraisal of Harvey Siegel's proposed requirements for critical thinking in his "Rationality Redeemed!" writing from the perspective of Deweyan pragmatism. Discusses Siegel's stance on contextualism; examines where philosophical ideas permanently reside; discusses propositions, hypostatization, and the philosophic fallacy; and examines the rationality of reasonableness, begging the question of foundationalist rationality, and concealing context. (SM)