In doing so, it considers some thorny issues at the forefront of education policy and provision: The increasing competitive stratification within education systems ; The impact of governments who have put competition in the labour market at the heart of their policies ; Social control of potentially disruptive groups, social cohesion and the human rights agenda ; The expansion of a special education industry driven by the needs of middle class, aspirant and knowledgeable parents, anxious about the success of their 'less able' children. Written by an internationally renowned scholar, Ignorant Yobs?: Low Attainers in a Global Knowledge Economy synthesises a range of complex, highly topical issues and suggests how those with learning difficulties might, with government and employer support, contribute to a flexible labour market.
Education Studies continues to grow as a popular undergraduate area of study. This core text addresses themes common to all Education Studies courses. It benefits from a large list of chapters from key contributors at key institutions. This third edition has been completely revised and updated with the addition of seven new chapters. Themes newly explored include gender, research, the power of money and status and alternatives to schooling. This fully comprehensive text is accessibly written, with learning features throughout to encourage students to approach issues critically. Fully up-to-date and covering a huge range of themes for Education Studies students.
In the World Library of Educationalists series, international experts themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces – extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and practical contributions – so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow the themes and strands and see how their work contributes to the development of the field. Professor Sally Tomlinson brings together 12 of her key writings in one place, including chapters from her best-selling books and articles from leading journals. In this landmark publication she reviews and recounts the history and development of her research and writing over 30 years that is concerned with the politics of education systems, especially special education, and the place of social classes and ethnic and racial minorities in the systems. Social class, race and gender have historically always been essential markers in deciding who would receive a minimum or inferior education and thus fail to obtain whatever were currently acceptable qualifications. Definitions of the ‘less able’ or ineducable were based on beliefs in the biological and cultural inferiority of lower social classes, racial and immigrant groups. Professor Tomlinson’s aim in her work has always been to introduce sociological, historical and political perspectives into an area dominated by psychological, administrative and technical views and to explain how the individual ‘problems’ were connected to wider social structures and policies. This unique collection illustrates the development of Professor Tomlinson’s thinking over the course of her long and esteemed career.
Finding Again the World brings together a dozen of the best stories by John Metcalf, a modern master of the form. Spanning more than fifty years and ranging from some of his earliest published stories, such as “Dandelions” and “The Eastmill Reception Centre,” to his latest, with “Ceazer Salad” and “The Museum at the End of the World,” this current gathering shows a writer whose voice, at every stage of his career, is unmistakeable. These are elegant and brilliantly charged fictions, entertaining and moving and mischievous: taking the dross and straw of everyday life and transforming it, through some sort of alchemical process of sensibility, into art. With an introduction by Keath Fraser, Finding Again the World is a landmark collection, a sumptuous gathering of singular work: these are stories that will last.
A modern housing estate hides a terrible secret in this gritty crime novel from a respected journalist - The scene of a particularly brutal crime back in 1568, the ancient Somerset village of Catcombe has now been transformed into a modern housing estate where the neighbours keep to themselves, terrorized by the resident ‘problem family’. When a young vicar is savagely beaten to death, DCI Rachel Moody finds it impossible to make headway in the ensuing investigation amid the pervading climate of fear. But it becomes increasingly clear that more than one resident has something to hide, and a terrible confrontation seems inevitable . . .
A Sociology of Special and Inclusive Education brings sociological perspectives to bear on the social, political and economic policies and practices that comprise special and inclusive education, and the education of lower attainers. Increasingly governments have accepted the premise that education should incorporate all social and ethnic groups, especially those regarded as having special educational needs, disabilities and difficulties in learning, but despite a plethora of literature on special and inclusive education world-wide, governments are still unsure of the reasons for this sector’s expansion in their national education systems. Professor Tomlinson applies critical sociological perspectives to the social processes, policies and practices that comprise special and inclusive education, particularly in England and the USA. She clearly examines the way in which people or groups exercise power and influence to shape this area of education, and discusses the conflicts of interest that arise in resulting social interactions and relationships. Key questions asked include: Why and how has a whole sector of education dealing with young people regarded as having learning difficulties, low attainments, behaviour problems or disabilities developed? How have special education programmes and resources become subsumed into variations of inclusive education? Why have ideological beliefs in hierarchies of ability, limits to learning potential and IQ as measurement continued to legitimate the treatment of young people? What happens to young people after their special, included or lower attainers' programmes, in terms of work and life chances? A Sociology of Special and Inclusive Education will be of interest to a wide range of educators, professionals, practitioners and policy-makers concerned with special, inclusive and vocational education, in addition to undergraduate, post-graduate and research students and academics.
Few would dispute that we live in an unequal and unjust world, but what causes this inequality to persist? Danny Dorling claims in this book that in rich countries social inequality is no longer caused by not having enough resources to share, but by unrecognised and unacknowledged beliefs which actually propagate it.
Based on up to date qualitative and ethnographic research, this book examines youth education-to-work transitions in the UK. Using the theoretical lens of a Foucauldian governmentality approach, the authors consider the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of youth employability training and demonstrate how different employability schemes planned and operationalised in diverse geographical and economic landscapes work in practice. The book examines and compares a range of employment entry route programmes and reveals the tension between employability and good quality employment, and the ways in which young people from varying social and regional backgrounds are positioned very differently within this.
This book combines history, sociology, psychology and educational policy in research on a 40-year, crucial phase of development of ethnic identity, ethnic relations and educational and social policies for children in England, from pre-school to secondary school. The authors show how nursery children of different ethnicities interact in beginning their identity journeys in a culture of both inequality, and evolving ethnic relationships and patterns of harmony, in Britain’s developing multicultural society. In looking at self-concept development in secondary school children through the lens of various kinds of child maltreatment, Alice Sawyerr and Christopher Bagley argue that ethnic minority children are psychological survivors, and African-Caribbean girls especially are making strong identity steps – it is the “poor whites” who will make up the precariat, the reserve army of labour, who are left behind in structures of inequality.
The History of Us is a beautiful exploration of love and obsession, based on the stories of a group of friends growing up in Norfolk and told in reflection focused on the incredibly close but conversely fractious relationship of the two central characters. Told in three parts, The History of Us, explores the relationships between the two and a close friend, bonded by love, but also by a single tragic moment in their shared lives. As the book unfolds, we hear many whispers, which shift our understanding of that tragic day, and ultimately, of course, our perceptions of the characters, and theirs of each other. Although we are offered a kind of resolution in the final pages, there remains a sense of ambivalence and unease that disturbs.
