Diana D’Amico Pawlewicz, an assistant professor of education, health, and behavior at the University of North Dakota, received the 2021 Outstanding Book Award from the Society of Professors of Education. She was honored for her book Blaming Teachers: Professionalization Policies and the Failure of Reform in American History (Rutgers University Press, 2020).
The Society of Professors of Education was founded in 1902 as a professional academic association. The society’s stated goal is “to provide a forum for consideration of major issues, tasks, problems, and challenges confronting professional educators.”
Dr. D’Amico Pawlewicz’s book explores how professionalization reforms, from the 1800s to the present day, subverted rather than enhanced public school teachers’ professional legitimacy. In fact, the reforms left teachers with the worst of both worlds, in that teachers are held responsible as professionals for the problems of public schools, but are denied the professional and managerial authority that they’d need to solve those problems.
“The award celebrates a range of truly impressive books by first-rate scholars, and it is an honor and a thrill to be in such wonderful company,” Dr. D’Amico Pawlewicz said. “That people are reading, enjoying, discussing, and thinking about the book means the world to me.”
Dr. D’Amico Pawlewicz is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she majored in history. She holds a master’s degree from Teachers College at Columbia University and a Ph.D. in the history of education from New York University.