I: Thinking more deeply about school life -- 1. Toward student-centered management -- 2. Managing interpersonal relationships in your classroom: historical and metaphorical perspectives -- 3. How cultural and personal labels influence teachers and students -- 4. Dealing with everyday classroom life: how to develop routines, promote responsibility, and respond to problems -- II: Understanding conflict and cooperation in today's classrooms -- 5. Conflict and cooperation in the social curriculum -- 6. Promoting cooperation and dealing with conflict: classroom strategies -- 7. Contemporary issues related to student behavior and discipline -- III: Developing cultural and local understandings of social curricula -- 8. Coping with change at John Tynes elementary school -- 9. The social curriculum of Brown-Barge middle school: a case report of guidance and mediation -- 10. Diversity and management: the case of Estacado high school -- IV: Exploring classroom management from a personal perspective -- 11. Inquiring into classroom and school life: an action research approach -- 12. Synthesizing your personal theories for management in contemporary classrooms