The Trouble with Ed Schools: A Book Review

American schools of education, whose two primary objectives are to prepare highly qualified teachers and to conduct valid and reliable education research, are often decried as “weak institutions” by many in academia and society in general. American schools of education are very often scorned by scholars and academia as intellectually inferior, referred to by teachers in the field as the “ivory tower” and considered to be out of touch and completely unrelated to what really transpires in schools, perceived by political leaders at all levels to be a primary contributing factor to the substandard state of contemporary public education. These are the observations and assertions of David Labaree, a professor in the school of education at Stanford University, who in The Trouble with Ed Schools employs critical sociological and historical analyses to analyze and examine the factors that have directly contributed to the lowly status of education schools in general, and the contemporary assumptions and perceptions that perpetuate this lowly status. If we as educators (and a society for that matter) are to achieve excellence in education we must be willing to engage in critical self reflection and analysis about the means by which we prepare teachers and engage in educational research and policy making. The Trouble with Ed Schools serves well as an impetus for such reflection and analysis

El problema de las «entregas»: Prestamistas judíos en el Norte de Castilla (Belorado y Miranda de Ebro hacia 1300)

Focusing especially on Jewish moneylending, the article explores economic relations between Jews and Christians in Northern Castile at the turn of the fourteenth century. During interfaith economic transactions, Jews and Christians followed the procedures established by customary law, and engaged in negotiations to resolve conflicts and generate inter-communal consensus. As more and more Christians defaulted on their loans, however, such negotiations often collapsed due to a combination of internal and external pressures. In Belorado and Miranda de Ebro, royal assistance with debt collections elicited strong protests from town officials, who accused Jewish moneylenders of violating local privileges and impoverishing Christian debtors. Tensions developed between Jewish and Christian residents of these towns when the traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution were upended, and the enforcement of loan repayment was taken away from local control.Estudio de las relaciones económicas entre judíos y cristianos a comienzos del siglo xiv en el Norte de Castilla, especialmente en relación al préstamo de dinero efectuado por judíos. Tratándose de transacciones económicas entre individuos de distinta confesión religiosa, los interesados recurrían a los procedimientos establecidos en el derecho consuetudinario, y hacían uso de la negociación con el objetivo de resolver conflictos y generar el mayor consenso posible entre las distintas comunidades. A medida que los prestatarios cristianos iban incumpliendo la devolución de préstamos, tales negociaciones fracasaron debido a una combinación de factores internos y externos. En Belorado y en Miranda de Ebro, la colaboración de los oficiales reales en la colección de las deudas suscitó protestas de los concejos, que acusaban a los prestadores judíos de violar los privilegios locales y de empobrecer a los deudores. Las tensiones entre los cristianos y los judíos de estas villas fueron en aumento cuando los mecanismos de resolución de conflictos quedaron trastocados y la ejecución de los pagos de las deudas quedó sustraída al control local