A comprehensive look at urban schools using history as a lens for coming to grips with present-day social, political, legal, and economic realities reflected in our urban education system. It's a blackboard jungle out there. Metal detectors at entrances, Overcrowded classrooms. Leaking roofs. Armed guards in the corridors. Burned-out teachers. Apathetic parents. No wonder Johnny can't read - even though he graduated. Explore how our urban students reached this stage, and what can be done to make it right. Here is the most recent information on the crises in our urban schools, from inadequate funding and student poverty to racial and ethnic schisms in the classroom, poorly prepared teachers, and more. The author skillfully maneuvers through the conflicting claims of administrators, school boards, teacher blocs, and other vested interests, to present a balanced overview. Urban Education encompasses the historical perspectives from the late 19th century to the present on urban schooling. It examines the social and political context of schools and the impact of court decisions on education in our urban schools. The book provides insightful analyses of teaching, curriculum and assessmen

This pioneering volume defines the contours of the emerging engagements of Muslim women scholars from around the world with the authoritative interpretive traditions of Islam, classical and contemporary. Muslima theology, here broadly defined to encompass a range of interpretive strategies and perspectives arising from multiple social locations, interrogates Islamic scripture and other forms of religious discourse to empower Muslim women of faith to speak for themselves in the interests of gender justice. Contributions provide an overview of the field at this juncture-ranging from pioneering Muslim scriptural feminism to detailed analyses of legal and mystical texts by a new international cohort of Muslim women academics and activists. Contemporary female Muslim "constructivist" approaches articulate concerns with diversity, including race and religious pluralism, paralleling developments in womanist and mujerista readings of religious texts.

The Hidden Dangers in our schools have grown and intensified over the last few years; so much so that I was compelled to write a second edition to Hidden Dangers: Subtle Signs of Failing Schools. Our schools are complex places; each with its own unique climate, administration, faculty, students, parents and community members. Clearly, schools do not work in a vacuum; each is affected by the much larger society, government and economy. In this new edition we will be introduced to the interplay of these facets and how they can help and in some cases hinder our schools, our teachers, and our students from thriving. We also learn why it is more complicated now than ever, and the stakes are even higher than when Hidden Dangers was originally published back in 2008.

This book provides an illuminating account of teachers' own reflections on their experiences of teaching in urban schools. It was conceived as a direct response to policy-related and media-generated concerns about male teacher shortage and offers a critique of the call for more male role models in elementary schools to address important issues regarding gender, race and the politics of representation. By including the perspectives of minority teachers and students, and by drawing on feminist, queer and anti-racist frameworks, this book rejects the familiar tendency to resort to role modelling as a basis for explaining or addressing boys' disaffection with schooling. Indeed, the authors argue, on the basis of their research in urban schools in Canada and Australia, that educational policy concerned with male teacher shortage and the plight of disadvantaged minority boys would benefit from engaging with analytic perspectives and empirical literature that takes readers beyond hegemonic discourses of role modelling. A compelling case is presented for the need to disarticulate discourses about role modelling from a politics of representation that is committed to addressing the reality of the impact of racial and structural inequalities on both minority teachers and students' participation in the education system. The book also provides insight into the persistence of gender inequality as it relates to the status of elementary school teaching as women's work.

This volume is a guide to using the Relational Literacy Curriculum with children in grades 2-5. Based on developmental and social constructivist principles, this curriculum presents a conceptual framework and a method for enhancing children's understanding of interpersonal relationships in the classroom. The Relational Literacy Curriculum:
*offers a powerful method for children to reflect on challenging interpersonal episodes and to discern constructive patterns of relating through discussion and role play;
*provides a process that can serve as both a prevention tool and a vehicle for managing immediate conflict;
*gives teachers a strong theoretical framework from which they can make principled decisions, and a flexible format for implementing it that they can adapt to meet the particular social needs of their classroom context; and
*promotes teacher reflection and learning through the use of various observational tools.
This book addresses the question of why it is important to study relationships in the elementary classroom; reviews the research and literature that inform the relational literacy curriculum; lays out the process of the curriculum; explains how the curriculum can be used to address real conflicts within the classroom community; and provides guiding principles for practice. It is a useful resource for classroom teachers, school psychologists, school counselors and social workers, and a valuable text for a range of courses, including classroom management, psycho-social interventions, child development, and early childhood education.

The authors set out to see if the American school has always been safe. Unfortunately, they found that it has not, that it is confronted in each new generation with a whole new set of threats and dangers. This is a unique book that examines American schools and their safety from the point of view of historical incursions and threats rather than from anecdotal and sometimes questionable information. Through the examination of thousands of documents and incidents, the authors show that the American school has always been subjected to threats from many different sources. Student violence is only a small part of this danger; in fact, the authors show that schools are confronted with many threats besides those presented sporadically by lone violent killers. The authors, at the same time, believe there has been an overreaction to violence that may in itself not be salubrious for the academic programs and moral climates of our schools. After the crisis at Columbine High School, many well-known commentators said that this was the worst crisis ever to take place in an American school. The authors decided to look at the whole topic of school safety in America from the period right after World War II to the present. This unique book is the first to place school safety at the heart of the educational endeavor in America, the first to treat the subject of threats to the school in a broader, historical context, and the first to treat the subject as part of intellectual history. By documenting thousands of instances during the period after World War II through the end of the century, the authors have concluded that the myth of "the school as a safe haven" has been a comforting, but not alwaysaccurate, metaphor. The approach to the subject is from a myriad of perspectives. First, the state of school buildings after the War is discussed. Next, the authors look at juvenile delinquency in the 1950s. Then they put school fires in context, followed by a chapter on school bus accidents and other devastating events from nature. In "Civil Rights, Uncivil Schools" they discuss the deleterious impact of the century's most important social movement on schools. In the creative chapter, "The Demise of Discipline," they demonstrate, through research, ways in which discipline in the schools has been eroded. In "A Decadent Counterculture" they assess the threats to schools by sex, drugs, and gangs. In "Terror Comes to School" they show that many violent intrusions began in the 1970s and earlier, well before the 1990s. The concluding chapter, "The Paradox of the Clinton Era" brings the history to the end of the century. The "Postscript" discusses new ways of looking at threats to school safety.

This book articulates a path for a renewed conception of-and commitment to-the public dimensions of schooling. It is an interdisciplinary book of philosophy and politics, written for educational leaders working in or on behalf of public schooling. Publics for Public Schools introduces a fresh view on how educational leaders might view the public ideal. In this conception of public work and leadership, educational leaders do not work with the public but help to achieve publics for public schools. The demos, or "the people" in the case of democratic governance of schools, mobilize around particular problems related to young people and schooling; they are best understood not as "the public" but as multiple publics. This book provides a conception of public life and of public leadership that can enable educational leaders of all types to help achieve publics for their schools.

This volume brings together an impressive array of respected scholars to examine the varied and complex ways in which peers influence adolescents' beliefs and behaviors in the school context. The breadth of peer influence on academic and social adjustment is evident in the wide variety of topics covered in the present volume. Throughout the chapters, scholars provide unique insights regarding the complex ways that the academic and social spheres of adolescents' lives are interconnected. Collectively, the chapters in this volume expand current knowledge and theory in peer relations research by (a) exploring different types of peer relations (e.g., close friendships, peer groups) and different peer dynamics (e.g., popularity, bullying) that emerge in the school context, (b) examining different processes that explain why and how peers influence each other in school, (c) considering developmental issues during adolescence that may be critical to understanding peers and adjustment at school and (d) providing information about how teacher practices or programs influence peer relations and school adjustment. Peer Relationships and Adjustment in School is an important volume for researchers and practitioners interested in social development, peer relationships and youth engagement and achievement in school.

Journey to a High-Achieving School: Eliminate Destructive Excuses examines the range of devastating excuses often expressed for failure to attain significant improvement in our schools. Using the methods of systems thinking and leadership practices that are employed in high-performing organizations of all kinds, this book shows concretely and specifically that what is at the root of these excuses can be overcome. The core ideas at work in the volume are based on the authors' well-regarded Academy for Education Leaders, an intensive course of seminars conducted for school superintendents, principals, and other educational leaders for the past several years. This is not a "quick fix" manual offering magic wands or silver bullets. It is a carefully-structured guidebook that can clearly and demonstrably help educational leaders at all levels of accountability begin to build a serious culture of excellence within their schools and school districts. Improvement will take time, but as the processes become familiar, school leaders can uncover and address the complex, but confused assumptions that keep standing in the way of the substantial and measurable improvements that must be made for our society's educational future.

Following 9/11 and the growth of religiously legitimated violence in Islamic countries, the focus of public discussion moved to imams and teachers of religion as actors supporting Muslim isolation and the lack of willingness to integrate - imams became central figures in the debate on Islam. With great enthusiasm, politicians discovered them to be the scapegoats of a failed integration of Muslims in Europe. Integrated imams trained in Europe were to promote Muslim integration, prevent violence, resolve contradictions between society and Muslims and further Islamic enlightenment. With this objective an attempt was made, on the one hand, to rediscover the existing institutions for imam training in Balkan states and, on the other hand, to establish new educational institutions at European universities to train Europe-compliant imams. Due to their central role in the lives of Muslims, the training of imams and teachers of religion is given an important role in the process of Muslim integration.

The vital role of principalship in improving schools in general and enhancing student achievement in particular has been well documented. Given its importance, there is a need for tools to improve principalship, particularly ones emphasizing those dimensions associated with student achievement. Given the accountability movement, with its particular focus on student achievement and the advent of the evaluation era (including the evaluation of principals), the need for tools is even more urgent. This edited volume presents those tools with the aim of improving learning-centered principalship. The book is useful for researchers and policy makers as well as principals.

School shootings are a topic of research in a variety of different disciplines-from psychology, to sociology to criminology, pedagogy, and public health-each with their own set of theories. Many of these theories are logically interconnected, while some differ widely and seem incompatible with each other, leading to divergent results about potential means of prevention. In this innovative work, leading researchers on the topic of school shootings introduce their findings and theoretical concepts in one combined systematic volume. The contributions to this work highlight both the complementary findings from different fields, as well as cases where they diverge or contradict each other. The work is divided into four main sections: an overview of current theoretical approaches and empirical models; application of these theories to international cases, including Columbine (USA), Emsdetten (Germany), and Tuusula (Finland); a critique of the influence of the media, both in the portrayals of past events and its effect on future events; and finally an overview of existing models for prevention and intervention, and measures of their success. The result is a comprehensive source for current research on school shootings, and will provide a direction for future research.

Despite national and international commitments to Education for All, and the Millennium Development Goals to assure universal primary education by 2015, over 90% of children with disabilities remain excluded from regular education in countries of the south. This book describes a three decade-long change initiative in India to enable children with disabilities to move from segregation and exclusion to inclusive education, and draws lessons for confronting global exclusion. It examines the barriers to inclusion of children with disabilities in the Indian sub-continent, estimated at 4% of the population, or 40-50 million children, and implications of the systemic failure within a human rights framework. The book concludes with setting this initiative in a broader context of inclusive education development efforts, and identifies lessons it provides for a global development agenda for inclusive education, including the importance of ensuring strategies that are culturally appropriate and context-specific.

After the unification of Germany had first been greeted with euphoria on both sides of the Wall, it did not take long for disillusion to set in when it became obvious that structures, mentality, values and outlook were very different in the Old and New Bundeslander. Moreover, whereas during the initial phase the East Germans were hoping just for a reform of their existing systems, they were soon disappointed and had to accept the fact that a fusion was out of the question; instead, East German structures were expected to assimilate to those of West Germany which led to the accusation of the latter's "colonization" of East Germany. The restructuring of the education system played a crucial role in the transformation of East Germany; consequently, enormous sums were pumped into East German schools and the training of teachers. This is the first study in any language that closely examines the process re-education and addresses such vital questions as whether the reforms were educationally sound, to what degree they meshed with local circumstances, what measures were taken to fill the vacuum in moral and social values that was left by the discrediting of Marxism-Leninism, and what happened to the notion of "equality", the key principle of a socialist society. Contrasting the old and the new regime in the East, the author addresses these and many more critical issues. Numerous case studies and substantial interview material richly illustrate the author's arguments.

Rabbi Loew (the Maharal) of Prague remains one of the most influential and prolific Jewish thinkers of his time. Widely considered one of the fathers of Hassidic thought and a harbinger of Modern Jewish philosophy, his life and work have retained their influence and remain prevalent today. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, this book ranges from an analysis of the historical background to Maharal's thought, to examining the relevance of this thought in the modern era, before addressing the popular cultural and folkloristic reception of Maharal's impact on modern, Western culture. This book presents a new understanding of familiar material and will be an invaluable asset to students and scholars of Modern and Early-Modern Jewish History and Intellectual thought.

As liberal democracies include increasingly diverse and multifaceted populations, the longstanding debate about the role of the state in religious education and the place of religion in public life seems imperative now more than ever. The maintenance of religious schools and the planning of religious education curricula raise a profound challenge. Too much state supervision can be conceived as interference in religious freedom and as a confinement of the right to cultural liberty. Too little supervision can be seen as neglecting the development of the liberal values required to live and work in a democratic society and as abandoning those who within their communities wish to attain a more rigorous education for citizenship and democracy. This book draws together leading educationalists, philosophers, theologians, and social scientists to explore issues, problems, and tensions concerning religious education in a variety of international settings. The contributors explore the possibilities and limitations of religious education in preparing citizens in multicultural and multi-religious democratic societies.

What is an inclusive school community?

How do stakeholders perceive their roles and responsibilities towards inclusive school communities?

How can school communities become more inclusive through engagement with individual perspectives?

Diverse Perspectives on Inclusive School Communities captures and presents the voices of a wide range of stakeholders including young people and their parents, teachers, support staff, educational psychologists, social workers, health practitioners and volunteers in producing a collection of varied perspectives on inclusive education.

In this fascinating book, Tsokova and Tarr uniquely assemble a compilation of accounts collected through in-depth interviews with over twenty-five participants, met throughout the course of their professional lives. The authors focus on how we can ensure all children receive the best education and social provision in inclusive school communities.

Key learning points in this book emphasise:

• links between early life and educational experiences;
• constructions of inclusion;
• an understanding of roles and responsibilities;
• the power of agency in relation to inclusive school communities.

The text contributes to current debates surrounding educational policy initiatives, highlighting similarities and differences across people and professions, and illuminating a way forward for the consideration of a broader range of insight into the concept of inclusion and ways this can be achieved. Including both UK and international perspectives that illustrate different stages of the inclusive education process, this text will be invaluable to anyone affiliated with inclusive schooling in a personal or professional capacity.

Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments provides students, faculty, and instructional designers with a clear, concise introduction to the major pedagogical and psychological theories and their implications for the design of new learning environments for schools, universities, or corporations. Leading experts describe the most important contemporary theories that form the foundation of the conception and design of student-centered learning environments and new applications of educational technologies. This book is well suited as a textbook for courses in instructional design, educational psychology, learning theory, curriculum theory and design, and related areas.

The rise of constructivism and its associated theories represented a paradigm shift for educators and instructional designers to a view of learning as necessarily more social, conversational, and constructive than traditional transmissive views of learning. This bestselling book was the first to provide a manageable overview of the altered field, and the second edition has been fully updated to include expert introductions to metacognition, Argumentation, and other key contemporary theories.

In a time of recession, the challenge of building and planning for tall buildings has become even more complex; the economics of development, legislative and planning frameworks, and the local politics of development must be navigated by those wishing to design and construct new tall buildings which fit within the fabric of their host cities. This book is a timely contribution to the debate about new tall buildings and their role and effect on our cities. It is divided into two main parts. In part one, the relationship between tall buildings and planning is outlined, followed by an exploration of the impacts that construction of tall buildings can have. It focuses, in particular, on the conservation debates that proposals for new tall buildings raise. The first part ends with an analysis of the way in which planning strategies have evolved to deal with the unique consequences of tall buildings on their urban locations. The second part of the book focuses on seven examples of medium-sized cities dealing with planning and conservation issues, and implications that arise from tall buildings. These have been chosen to reflect a wide range of methods to either encourage or to control tall buildings that cities are deploying. The case studies come from across the western world, covering England (Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham), Norway (Oslo), Ireland (Dublin) and Canada (Vancouver) and represent a broad spectrum of approaches to dealing with this issue. In drawing together the experiences of these varied cities, the book contributes to the ongoing debate about the role of the tall building in our cities, their potential impacts, and experiences of those who use and inhabit them. The conclusions outline how cities should approach the strategic planning of tall buildings, as well as how they should deal with the consequences of individual buildings, particularly on the built heritage.

Sexuality education has been the cause of much dissension in the Western Muslim community. Delivering sexuality education that is both Islamically inclusive and reflective of the real world of Muslim youth remains a challenge for many school communities. Through the eyes of Muslim teachers, students, and members of wider Islamic communities, this book offers a comprehensive understanding of the problems, perspectives, and possibilities of sexuality education for Muslim youth living in the West. The book explores how these youth negotiate between Muslim and popular cultural constructions of sexuality, and how teachers attempt to develop sexuality education programmes that honour Islamic teachings and culture. Based on empirical research with Australian Muslim communities, this book presents a contemporary conversation which responds to the intense battle concerning sexuality education in Western Muslim communities and will be of great interest to educational researchers, cultural theorists, and policy-makers.

Imagine having to draw dots each time we wanted to do a sum like 3+4. Or having to sound out every word we read, no matter how many times we've seen it before. Having well-consolidated memories for how to do these things can help us avoid these difficulties, which is why consolidation should be a key goal of effective teaching. Helping students consolidate knowledge is a crucial stepping stone in allowing them to navigate problems and develop their knowledge. Building on the hugely influential paper by John Dunlosky, Amarbeer Singh Gill looks at ways teachers can use recommendations from 'Strengthening the Student Toolbox' to consolidate knowledge and enhance the learning that takes place in their classrooms. Each strategy is looked at in detail, delving into the conditions needed to help the strategies work, how they might look in classrooms, things to be mindful of when translating research into practice, and case studies from current teachers who describe how they've used these strategies. By harnessing the power of these strategies we can make it more likely that our students will succeed not just whilst they're in our classrooms, but also well beyond by giving them the tools they need for lifelong learning.

This book provides an illuminating account of teachers' own reflections on their experiences of teaching in urban schools. It was conceived as a direct response to policy-related and media-generated concerns about male teacher shortage and offers a critique of the call for more male roles in elementary schools to address important issues regarding gender, race and the politics of representation. By including the perspectives of minority teachers and students, and by drawing on feminist, queer and anti-racist frameworks, this book rejects the familiar tendency to resort to role modeling as a basis for explaining or addressing boys' disaffection with schooling. Indeed, the authors argue, on the basis of their research in urban schools in Toronto and Australia, that educational policy concerned with male teacher shortage and the plight of poor, disaffected minority boys would benefit from engaging with analytic perspectives and empirical literature which move beyond the singularity of gender and race as a basis for entertaining an urban school reform agenda that emphasizes the transformative potential of the male teacher as a role model. Presented within is a compelling case for the need to disarticulate discourses about role modeling from a politics of representation that is committed to addressing the reality of the impact of racial and structural inequalities on both minority teachers and students' participation in the education system. This book also provides insight into the persistence of gender inequality as it relates to the status of elementary school teaching as women's work.

This book provides a contemporary overview of school effectiveness and improvement. It charts the development theory and research in this area and looks at the contribution made to policy and practice. It also challenges some assumptions that have become ingrained into the theoretical and methodological traditions of the field. By challenging these orthodoxies, it provides a framework that sets a new agenda and repositions the field to meet the emerging challenges of the twenty-first century. It argues that traditional measures of school effectiveness are challenged as systems have attempted to adapt to a complex range of emerging agendas. New theoretical perspectives are required which consider 'education' and a 'broader set of outcomes'. This shift requires a rethink of how effectiveness and improvement have been understood by the field, and a reconstruction by policy makers and practitioners. Attention must be given to promoting equity as well as effectiveness so that one school or student's gain no longer means another's loss. The field must develop new methodologies if inequities are to be challenged and a broader set of outcome measures are to be developed. The two questions guiding this book are: How can educational effectiveness and improvement research and practice support the development of a more equitable education service? What are the key indicators of educational effectiveness and improvement and what are the new methodologies required to facilitate a shift from 'school' effectiveness and improvement to 'educational' effectiveness and improvement? This book uses lenses of research, policy and practice to explore these key questions and articulate what such a repositioning may look like and how it may be achieved. It will prove invaluable for teachers, school leaders and anyone involved in policy and educational research.

This book addresses the challenges faced by arts organizations, schools, and community-based settings when designing program evaluations and measuring artistic engagement and experience. With contributions from leaders in the field, this volume is an exemplary collection of complete program evaluations that assess music, theater, dance, multimedia, and the visual arts in a variety of contexts.

Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments provides students, faculty, and instructional designers with a clear, concise introduction to the major pedagogical and psychological theories and their implications for the design of new learning environments for schools, universities, or corporations. Leading experts describe the most important contemporary theories that form the foundation of the conception and design of student-centered learning environments and new applications of educational technologies. This book is well suited as a textbook for courses in instructional design, educational psychology, learning theory, curriculum theory and design, and related areas.

The rise of constructivism and its associated theories represented a paradigm shift for educators and instructional designers to a view of learning as necessarily more social, conversational, and constructive than traditional transmissive views of learning. This bestselling book was the first to provide a manageable overview of the altered field, and the second edition has been fully updated to include expert introductions to metacognition, Argumentation, and other key contemporary theories.