Academics, policy makers and professionals explore the development of EU education policy, its impact on practice and potential future directions after the Lisbon treaty. "Schools for the Future Europe" brings together a team of leading academics, policy makers and education professionals to explore the emergence, development and application of European education policy up to the 2009 Lisbon Treaty and beyond. This book charts the historical development of a Europe-wide education policy, and examines how that policy has sought to address such issues as European citizenship, human rights and bilingual schooling. Taking as examples the intended future extension of the European Schools and the European Baccalaureate, and a case study of work towards the first British European Academy at Culham, UK, this book critically explores the interplay of EU action programmes, policy and rhetoric on secondary education. In the final section, the editors draw on the insights of the previous chapters to outline an achievable programme for the future development of education policy structures and practice in schools for Europe.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa guarantees all citizens the right to education. It further identifies persons with disabilities as one of the groups that were previously most disadvantaged across all spheres of life and therefore key to redress in the transformation of the country. People with disabilities are therefore prime beneficiaries of affirmative action measures including their inclusion in mainstream schools. Inclusive education policy is intended to facilitate the afore-mentioned process and ensures that issues of access to education by students with disabilities are approached from a human rights perspective. Ultimately, public schools need to be conducive to students with disabilities. One of the objectives of this work, apart from advocating for the inclusion of all students in the current education system, is, to ensure equal access to training, skills development, equal opportunities as well as career pathing of students with or without disabilities. Students with disabilities are often not able to perform to the best of their abilities, often find themselves learning in inaccessible environments, and are often subjected to increased stress levels due to the ad hoc provisioning of education characterised by physical, communicative, and unsuitable teaching and learning approaches including unfair assessment practices. Misconceptions and lack of knowledge with regards to the provisioning of inclusive education detract from the successful admission of students with disabilities, their retention, and their active participation in the teaching and learning encounters. In light of the above, this book explores the concept of inclusive education in an African context and examines inclusive education using Ubuntu as an African philosophy that is unique and embedded in the moral value systems of Africa.

This is an empirical study of everyday leadership practices in action in a post-compulsory education context. The issue of 'leadership'; the need for good, insightful and decisive leaders is a prominent theme in Education. Yet few can define exactly what leadership is. This book examines the phenomenon of leadership in post-compulsory education through the careful description and analysis of a long-term observational study of college Principals at work. In contrast to other, more theoretical, attempts to understand leadership, this book develops an understanding of leadership by pointing to specific examples of what leaders actually do as they go about their everyday work of resolving organisational issues. Instead of presenting leaders as charismatic heroes this book investigates a number of familiar, routine, aspects of everyday leadership work: how leadership is 'performed'; the various technologies - email, documents, slide presentations - involved in leadership work; the everyday management of organisational personnel and meetings; and, how success and failure is defined and understood by the leaders themselves. It concludes with some suggestions of what is learned from understanding leadership as everyday work and some 'cautionary tales' for those who would become educational leaders themselves.

This engaging text explores discourses involved in the teaching of literacy which can be conceptualised as deriving from the political left. The concept of a left and a right in politics are fully defined and a unique analytical framework is introduced to examine and categorise perspectives for teaching literacy. The book creates a language of critique for methods advocated from liberal, left-leaning sources within the field of education and connects them to left political agendas that aspire to either reform or revolution to change and improve society. These left approaches are then contrasted with politically right agendas. Methods for the teaching of literacy have for many years been seen to be politically motivated by commentators on the left and the right of politics. This book considers the ideological sources of educational practice in literacy. Methods advocated from more liberal perspective are rarely critiqued and examined for their ideological and political roots.

This book is a comparative study of the endeavors to create a socialist system of higher education in the Soviet Union under Stalin and in China under Mao. It is organized around three themes: the convergence of Maoism with Stalinism in the early 1950s, which induced the transnational transplantation of the Soviet model of higher education to China; historical convergence between Stalinism of the First Five-Year Plan period (1928-1932) and Maoism of the Great Leap period (1958-1960), which was prominently manifested in Soviet and Chinese higher education policies in these respective periods; the eventual divergence of Maoism from Stalinism on the definition of socialist society, which was evinced in the different final outcomes of the Maoist and Stalinist endeavors to create a socialist system of higher learning.

Education in the 21st century has been tasked with preparing students to begin the journey towards a place in their communities in which they feel fulfilled and autonomous. Service learning is one way to introduce students to careers and knowledge that will prepare them for a successful life. Community Engagement Program Implementation and Teacher Preparation for 21st Century Education examines the many ways in which community engagement is carried out in all educational settings, from K-12 to higher education. This publication is unique in its mission to examine these topics from a holistic perspective. From online education to volunteer organizations, this book gives educators, administrators, community volunteers, and students a window into the successful deployment of such programs to prepare students for a global society.

"Education in the Balance "explores the significant choices and opportunities, worldwide that are opening up to school leaders of the future for the development of schools and school systems. It argues that the judgments of individuals in leadership positions in a wide range of settings, including ministries of education, schools, private companies and NGOs may, cumulatively, have unintended implications for schools and school systems, and, because of insufficient consideration of alternative approaches, may miss opportunities to achieve greater or more widespread educational benefits. The future of school education depends on the quality of its leaders, and in particular, on the readiness of leadership to act for the long term and with a sense of global responsibility. What knowledge, skills and attributes will these new leaders of schools need, and how can they be developed? Raphael Wilkins maps out these issues, drawing on his first-hand experience as an international consultant in education leadership.This book supports the strategic leadership of schools and school systems, by mapping global issues and developments, helping leaders to reflect on their chosen pathways and options, and to identify their own professional development needs.

For America's children, for students, growing up urban has become a tainted label. By acquiring one simple label, the urban student has become the other, illegitimate, different from the norm. The urban student has indeed been bastardized in America. The constructs of race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and social capital combine to oppress the urban student. This text takes the suggestion that urban has become inextricably linked to race one step further and proposes that it has become a socially constructed category in its own right that serves to disempower all those who self-identify or are labeled as such. The structure of this book seeks to give the reader a series of rich contexts in which to understand how the American urban student and urban school came to fruition. Through the use of historical and quantitative data, interviews and observations, Fisher provides a comprehensive view of the many factors at play that merge to create the urban high school.

This book explores international perspectives on quality improvement within the field of early childhood education and care. Many countries and governments are focusing on preschool quality as a way to improve entrenched inequalities and reduce social disadvantage and segregation: this book draws together various global case studies to showcase how different countries tackle aspects of quality improvement. The concept of quality is understood in different ways both culturally and contextually, and the implementation of measures to improve quality will differ from country to country. The book draws together case studies from numerous contexts to showcase various ways of working with aspects of quality improvement. Sharing important insights into policy and practice, this book guides a shared understanding of the complex nature of quality improvement within early childhood education and care.

'This book sets out an ambitious but achievable alternative to the managerialism that dominates current approaches to leadership and management in higher education. The multiple perspectives model provides a holistic and empirically grounded framework for exploring contrasting values, identities, emotions, goals and expectations, and for provoking generative conversations that will inspire and engage the next generation of academic leaders.' - Richard Bolden, University of the West of England, UK Managing Academics offers contrasting perspectives of managing others in order to provoke alternative interpretations of academic work, identity, working relationships and scholarship outcomes in higher education institutions (HEIs). The author leverages a novel analytical-empirical approach to challenge the notion that managing others is a unitary, values-free process. This approach raises awareness of managing as a social process in which personal values and identity questions are treated as issues of importance to the manager and managed. Studies of academic values such as identity, professionalism and quality of worklife are integrated with authority, commitment and client-community service concepts developed within the disciplines of psychology and management in a multiple perspectives model. To enable different types of academic work to be valued and enacted simultaneously in HEIs, chapters on hybridity and perspective taking are presented. This innovative book is essential reading for academic managers in universities and colleges. It will also be of great value to academics and research students in business, management and higher education studies, and indeed anyone with an interest in the process of managing professionals.

The population of English language learners has substantially grown over the years. As such, it is increasingly important to properly educate culturally diverse students in such a manner that promotes inclusion and global acceptance. Intercultural Responsiveness in the Second Language Learning Classroom is an essential reference source for the latest research on the importance of multicultural professional development for the progression of educating a diverse student population. Featuring expansive coverage across a broad range of topics such as cultural bias, self-identity, and language programs, this publication is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on methods to solve the cultural incongruence between student and teacher.