Critical Issues in Education is designed to be used in courses that examine current, relevant pro-and-con disputes about schools and schooling. By exploring the major opposing viewpoints on these issues, the text encourages education students to think critically and develop their own viewpoints. The clear writing and dramatic dialectic approach are conducive to dynamic classroom discussions that help students grasp the many sides of these complex issues. Three integrating themes provide a solid framework for examining the nineteen topics covered. Each part begins with a chapter-length introduction that provides background material and organizing themes for the issues that follow. Each issue is then presented from two divergent viewpoints, each one written in advocate language to be as compelling as possible. The book's objective, in addition to informing the reader about the issues, is to develop critical thinking skills within the context of education. The fourth edition includes updated research and scholarship, updated bibliographic references, and three new chapters ("Beginning Reading - Is there one best approach to literacy?" "Gender - Should gender differences affect schools and schooling?" and "Mainstreaming and Inclusion - How should we provide for students with special needs?").