Using case studies of two very different schools, this text aims to demonstrate that when teachers enact reforms in the name of community, what often emerges is conflict. It reframes conflict as constructive in building educational communities that learn and promote democratic values in schools.

Here is a must-read book for policymakers and practitioners interested in creating and sustaining professional communities in schools. - Larry Cuban, Stanford University; ""Achinstein shows that conflict is a 'hopeful act' and essential element of a healthy professional community. Community, Diversity, and Conflict Among Schoolteachers makes a fundamental contribution to our understanding of strong professional community.""; -Milbrey McLaughlin, David Jacks Professor of Education and Public Policy, Stanford University; ""This important study shows dramatically how complex and difficult it is to build democratic communities. There are tough lessons here from which all community builders should profit.""; - Nel Noddings, Stanford University; ""This book makes a timely and powerful contribution to theory, research, and practice by uncovering the roles that conflict and dissent play in shaping professional community... and how this matters for the kinds of schools that teachers and students will inhabit."" - Judith Warren Little, Graduate School of Education, University of California at Berkeley.