Explorations In The Politics Of School Knowledge

La politique de l'enseignement des disciplines. L'usage des manuels dans l'acquisition des connaissances. Les aspects bureaucratiques de l'éducation. Développement de nouvelles formes d'éducation. Le "programme" d'une école libérale.

This volume aims to offer an exercise in the cultural politics of teaching. It invites teachers and interested others to rethink what they know about social justice and to rework how they engage in the practices of teaching, particularly in relation to how these influence the lives of students.

In this important book the author looks back on the 'knowledge question'. What knowledge gets selected to be validated as school knowledge or as part of the school curriculum, and why is it selected? Looking forward, Young discusses how most developed countries have high levels of participation in post-compulsory education, but still use curricula designed for a time when only the elite pursued further education. He argues the need to rethink post-16 education to shift focus onto vocational education, school-work issues and lifelong learning.

Based on interviews with key actors in the policy-making process, this book maps the changes in education policy and policy making in the Thatcherite decade. The focus of the book is the 1988 Education Reform Act, its origins, purposes and effects, and it looks behind the scenes at the priorities of the politicians, civil servants and government advisers who were influential in making changes. Using direct quotations from senior civil servants and former secretaries of state it provides a fascinating insight into the way in which policy is made. The book focuses on real-life political conflicts, examining the way in which education policy was related to the ideal of society projected by Thatcherism. It looks in detail at the New Right government advisers and think tanks; the industrial lobby, addressing issues such as the National Curriculum, national testing and City Technical Colleges. The author sets these important issues within a clear theoretical framework which illuminates the whole process of policy making.

First published in 1977, this volume brings together a range of viewpoints, informed by reports of empirical research, which bear on the experience of school. Each chapter demonstrates the application of the ‘new sociology of education’ in its various guises to the world of teachers and pupils. In doing so, they exemplify the fields of investigation opened up by these theoretical developments, and also suggest directions ahead. The tensions in the articles reflect the tensions that existed in the sociology of education. By bringing them together, the aim of this volume is to contribute to a more soundly based sociology of education.

Twenty-first Century Schools traces the extension of political control over Britain’s school system and, through US case studies, looks at alternative methods of organisation.

Teaching and Learning: Pedagogy, Curriculum and Culture is designed to share important theory with readers in an accessible but sophisticated way. It offers an overview of the key issues and dominant theories of teaching and learning as they impact upon the practice of education professionals in the classroom. This second edition has been updated to take account of significant changes in the field; young people’s use of digital technologies, the increasing involvement of world of business in state education, and ongoing high-profile debates about assessment, to name but a few. It examines the global move from traditional subject-and-knowledge based curricula towards skills and problem-solving and discusses how the emphasis on education for citizenship has forced us to reconsider the social functions of education. Central topics also covered include: an assessment of the most influential theorists of learning and teaching the ways in which public educational policy impinges on local practice the nature and role of language and culture in formal educational settings an assessment of different models of 'good teaching' alternative models of curriculum and pedagogy. With questions, points for consideration and ideas for further reading and research throughout, this book delivers discussion and analysis designed to support understanding of classroom interactions and to contribute to improved practice. It will be essential reading for all student teachers, those engaged in professional development, and Education Studies students.

In dialogues with eleven key thinkers in the area of critical education, this book documents how a tradition of study grew in the United States. Through in-depth interviews these thinkers talk about their personal experiences and their work.