This text offers an alternative to traditional foundational texts by combining a point-of-view analysis with primary source readings. Pre-service and practicing teachers will find a solid introduction to the foundations disciplines -- history, philosophy, politics, and sociology of education -- and their application to educational issues including school organization and teaching, curriculum and pedagogic practices, education and inequality, and school reform and improvement. Features: *Incorporates primary source readings that reflect the most updated perspectives and data, giving students illustrations of concepts and providing opportunities for critical and reflective thinking. *Includes current achievement data representing the effects of educational reform. *Offers a point of view that balances realistic analysis of problems and solutions called the foundations perspective. This provides prospective teachers with a view of the opportunities and possibilities of school reform. *Discusses the separate foundations disciplines -- politics, history, philosophy, sociology -- that make up the foundations perspective giving students a base for understanding each of the foundations.* Addresses the interdisciplinary application of foundations disciplines to educational problems and solutions showing students the interdisciplinary nature of the foundations perspective.Package this text with MyLabSchool--a powerful set of online tools that bring the classroom to life! Visit www.mylabschool.com for more information!