Education is considered central to social mobility and, following a drive to raise learners’ aspirations, an ‘aspiration industry’ has emerged. However, the desire to leave school early should not be regarded as evidence of students lacking ambition. This book traces the emergence of the aspiration industry and argues that to have ambitions that do not require qualifications is different, but not wrong. Reviewing the performance of six schools in England, their Ofsted reports and responses, it evaluates underpinning assumptions of what makes an effective school. This book critically examines neo-liberal education policy developments, including the 1988 Education Reform Act, and the political discourse around changing explanations of education ‘failure’ with the rise in the marketisation of education.
Education is considered central to social mobility and, following a drive to raise learners’ aspirations, an ‘aspiration industry’ has emerged. However, the desire to leave school early should not be regarded as evidence of students lacking ambition. This book traces the emergence of the aspiration industry and argues that to have ambitions that do not require qualifications is different, but not wrong. Reviewing the performance of six schools in England, their Ofsted reports and responses, it evaluates underpinning assumptions of what makes an effective school. This book critically examines neo-liberal education policy developments, including the 1988 Education Reform Act, and the political discourse around changing explanations of education ‘failure’ with the rise in the marketisation of education.
Mike Murray's excellent new book attacks the narrow high stakes accountability and marketized vision which has distorted our education system, the fragmentation of education thinking into warring camps and silos and offers a radical optimistic vision of how we can emerge from the current impasse.Perfect for teachers or school leaders who want to engage with research and move the education system in a radical future direction.
Educational Choices, Transitions and Aspirations in Europe analyses educational choices and transitions in eight different European countries/regions and provides an engaging means of considering issues of inequality through international comparisons. The book is underpinned by explorations of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches, which share the common goal of highlighting and challenging educational inequalities in relation to political imaginings and discursive constructions of notions of aspirations and choice. Beginning with an overview of the theoretical landscape, the book posits ways of understanding transitional experiences through both a social and a political lens. Comprising of chapters that explore these issues within the context of specific countries and at different stages of young people’s transitions, the collection examines the features of different European education systems and how they frame transitions and choices, before providing an overall analysis of systemic, institutional and subjective constraints on these processes. The book uniquely opens and develops an intellectual conversation about different education systems with similar educational challenges and outcomes. Assimilating key issues and solutions, this volume also makes general recommendations for policy and practice that would help to promote greater equity and social justice. The book covers a range of transition points and countries, which should make it essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students with an interest in international perspectives on education. It will be particularly useful for those working in education, sociology, social policy, geography, and politics.
Our democracy is in crisis. Both political trust and a shared standard of truth are broken. In this book, Walter Parker shows why and how a civic education can help. Offering a centrist approach suitable for a polarized society, Parker focuses on two linked curriculum objectives: disciplinary knowledge and voice. He illustrates how classroom discussion, alongside concept formation and deep reading, expand students’ minds while developing their ability to speak with others and form opinions. When children come to school, they emerge from the private chrysalis of babyhood and kin to interact with a diverse student body along with teachers, curriculum, instruction, and the school’s unique mission: education. Parker argues that these assets make school the ideal place to teach young people the liberal arts of studying and discussing public issues and academic controversies, both in and beyond school. The chapters in this collection, spanning 20 years and coming from one of civic education’s most influential scholars, show that voice can be taught right alongside disciplinary knowledge. Drawing students into dialogue with one another on the curriculum’s central questions is a teacher’s most ambitious goal and, when it happens, teachingÕs greatest accomplishment. Book Features: Argues that the proper aim of civic education in schools is to shore up liberal democracy.Shows how discussion can be a main course, and not a side dish, of classroom instruction. Demonstrates how to use discussion to develop voice, defined as the freedom to make and express uncoerced decisions, and disciplinary knowledge, defined as the knowledge that results from a public process of error-seeking, contestation, and validation.Explains why students need to learn both disciplinary knowledge and voice if they are to take their place on the public stage and hold the “office of citizen” in a democracy.Treats subject-centered and student-centered instruction as partners, not opponents.
Unlike other volumes in the current literature, this book provides insight for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary researchers and practitioners on what doesn’t work. Documenting detailed case studies of project failure matters, not only as an illustration of experienced challenges but also as projects do not always follow step-by-step protocols of preconceived and theorised processes. Bookended by a framing introduction by the editors and a conclusion written by Julie Thompson Klein, each chapter ends with a reflexive section that synthesizes lessons learned and key take-away points for the reader. Drawing on a wide range of international case studies and with a strong environmental thread throughout, the book reveals a range of failure scenarios for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects, including: • Projects that did not get off the ground; • Projects that did not have the correct personnel for specified objectives; • Projects that did not reach their original objectives but met other objectives; • Projects that failed to anticipate important differences among collaborators. Illustrating causal links in real life projects, this volume will be of significant relevance to scholars and practitioners looking to overcome the challenges of conducting interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.
This book offers an innovative look at the pre- and post-migration educational experiences of immigrant young adults with a particular focus on members of the Latino community. Combining quantitative data with original interviews, this book provides an engaging and nuanced look at a population that is both ubiquitous and overlooked, challenging existing assumptions about those categorized as ‘dropouts’ and closely examining the historical contexts for educational interruption in the chosen subgroup. The combination of accessible prose and compelling new statistical data appeals to a wide audience, particularly academic professionals, education practitioners and policy-makers.
What are the effects of decreasing social mobility? How does education help - and hinder - us in improving our life chances? Why are so many of us stuck on the same social rung as our parents? Apart from the USA, Britain has the lowest social mobility in the Western world. The lack of movement in who gets where in society - particularly when people are stuck at the bottom and the top - costs the nation dear, both in terms of the unfulfilled talents of those left behind and an increasingly detached elite, disinterested in improvements that benefit the rest of society. This book analyses cutting-edge research into how social mobility has changed in Britain over the years, the shifting role of schools and universities in creating a fairer future, and the key to what makes some countries and regions so much richer in opportunities, bringing a clearer understanding of what works and how we can better shape our future.
This state-of-the-art, comprehensive Handbook fully explores the field of alternative education on an international scale. Alternatives to mainstream schooling and education are becoming increasingly recognised as pertinent and urgent for better understanding what really works in successfully educating children and adults today, especially in light of the increased performance driven and managerially organised economic modelling of education that dominates. For too long we have wondered what “exactly” education done otherwise might look like and here we meet individual examples as well as seeing what alternative education is when a collection becomes greater than the sum of parts. The Handbook profiles numerous empirical examples from around the world of education being done in innovative and excitingly democratic and autonomous ways from Forest Schools and Home Education through to new technologies, neuroscience and the importance of solitude. The book also sets out important theoretical perspectives to inform us why seeing education through an alternative lens is useful as well as urgently needed. Global in its perspective and definitive in content, this one-stop volume will be an indispensable reference resource for a wide range of academics, students and researchers in the fields of Education, Education Policy, Sociology and Philosophy as well as educational practitioners.
The International Science and Evidence Based Education (ISEE) Assessment is an initiative of the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP), and is its contribution to the Futures of Education process launched by UNESCO Paris in September 2019. In order to contribute to re-envisioning the future of education with a science and evidence based report, UNESCO MGIEP embarked on the first-ever large-scale assessment of knowledge of education.
