During the last 20 years, governments around the world have paid increasing attention to the recruitment, preparation, and retention of teachers. Teacher supply and teacher quality have become significant policy issues, taken up by policy-makers at the highest levels. This is because teachers are now seen by many governments as the lynch-pin of educational, economic and social reform. This volume grew out of a recognition by the Editors of the growing significance of teacher education policy and a curiosity about international trends and differences. The book brings together nine papers from leading academics around the world: from the UK (England and Scotland), the USA, Australia, Singapore and Belgium, plus a joint paper comparing Namibia and the USA. Taken together, the papers reveal the complexities and contradictions of international trends. On the one hand, they demonstrate that there is indeed a common direction of travel along the lines encouraged by international bodies such as the OECD. At the same time however, the papers also reveal important differences among countries in terms of how they are addressing common aspirations as well as some apparent contradictions within the policies of individual nations.

This book was based on the special issue of Teachers and Teaching.

One of the most persistent features of the research environment in the UK over the last decades has been the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE); now more and more countries are following suit by developing their own systems for research quality assessment. However, in the field of education, one of the difficulties with this policy has been that a great deal of educational research characterises itself as either applied or practice-based. These are forms of research that have been notoriously difficult to accommodate within the RAE in all disciplines, not just in education. But what is applied and practice-based research in education? How can we define it and how can we assess its quality? The authors in this book come from diverse traditions within educational research, but through their papers each aims to contribute to the debate about what applied and practice-based research is and how we can understand, articulate and assess its quality. This book was first published as a special issue of Research Papers in Education: Policy and Practice.

Contents:
Section 1. Introduction 1. The ScreenPlay project 2. Setting the scene: Patterns of computer use in the home Section 2. The domestic context 3. Computer histories, computer roles in the home 4. The computer in family life Section 3. Young people's computer use in the home 5. The digital landscape: Games and information navigation 6. Writing, designing and making on the computer in the home Section 4. Digital cultures 7. Computers, consumption and identity 8. Computers, gender and class 9. Digital childhood Section 5. Learning with the computer 10. Learning with the computer at home 11. Learning with computers at school 12. Conclusion

Britain's two recent referenda - on Brexit (2016) and on Scottish independence (2014) - have raised in the public mind fundamental questions about the future of the UK. It seems that for the first time, the public, the media and the political elite have woken up to the fact that in different parts of the UK, there are different histories, different aspirations and different imagined futures in relation to a whole range of vitally important political issues. But what the public debate often fails to recognise is that in many areas of public life - perhaps especially education - the UK is already a federal state and in key respects has been so for many years. The aim of this volume is therefore to take stock: to try and capture what the current state of educational policy and practice is across the whole of the UK. This has been achieved by commissioning two different papers from each of the four countries - Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England. The first is an overview, exploring the distinctive history, principles and current policies of each country. The second paper has been specifically chosen as a case study of a key policy that highlights the distinctiveness of each country - the Foundation Phase for Wales, assessment policy in Scotland, 'shared education' initiatives in Northern Ireland and higher education policy in England. Taken together these eight papers give an important insight into the complexities of educational policy and practice across the whole of the UK today. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Oxford Review of Education.

Are the disciplines of education ghosts of a productive past or creative and useful forms of inquiry? Are they in a demographic and organisational crisis today?

The contribution of the 'foundation disciplines' of sociology, psychology, philosophy, history and economics to the study of education has always been contested in the UK and in much of the English-speaking world. But such debates are now being brought to a head in education by the demographic crisis. Recent research has shown that with the an ageing population of education academics, in ten years' time, there could be very few disciplinary specialists left working within faculties of education in UK universities. But does that matter and is the UK no more than a special case? How does this 'crisis' look from Europe where the disciplines of education are more embedded, and from the USA with its more diverse higher education system?

In this book, leading scholars - including A.H. Halsey, David Bridges, John Furlong, Hugh Lauder, Martin Lawn and Sheldon Rothblatt - consider the changing fortunes of each discipline as education moved away from the dominance of psychology in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s as a result of the growing importance of the other disciplines and new social questions, and how the changing epistemological and political debates of the last twenty years haves resulted in their progressive demise. Finally, the book confronts the question as to whether the disciplines have a place in education in the twenty-first century.

The book brings the coming crisis into the public view and explores the issue of the past, current and future relevance of the disciplines to the study of education. It will be of interest to all international academics and researchers in the field of education and the contributory disciplines as well as to students on educational research methods courses.

Learning with technology is viewed globally as crucial to establishing a skilled workforce and empowering citizens by offering opportunities to those who would be otherwise excluded. Governments around the world have therefore set targets and developed policies to help all adults learn, work and live with the support of information and communications technologies (ICTs).
This illuminating and engaging book sheds light on the ways in which adults in the 21st century interact with ICTs for learning at home, work and within the wider community. Based on one of the first large-scale academic research projects in this area, the authors present their rich and detailed findings to generate practical recommendations for the use of new technology in a learning society, inviting debate on:
* why ICTs are believed to be capable of affecting positive change in adult learning;
* the drawbacks and limits of ICT in adult education;
* what makes a lifelong learner;
* what people use ICT for in the home, work and community;
* the wider social, economic, cultural and political realities of the information age and the learning society.
"Adult Learning in the Digital Age "addresses key questions and provides a sound empirical foundation to the existing debate, highlighting the 'messy' realities of the learning society and 'e-learning' rhetoric, and telling the story of those who are excluded from the learning society, and offering a set of powerful and stark recommendations for practitioners, policy-makers, and politicians, as well as researchers and students.

One of the most persistent features of the research environment in the UK over the last decades has been the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE); now more and more countries are following suit by developing their own systems for research quality assessment. However, in the field of education, one of the difficulties with this policy has been that a great deal of educational research characterises itself as either applied or practice-based. These are forms of research that have been notoriously difficult to accommodate within the RAE in all disciplines, not just in education. But what is applied and practice-based research in education? How can we define it and how can we assess its quality? The authors in this book come from diverse traditions within educational research, but through their papers each aims to contribute to the debate about what applied and practice-based research is and how we can understand, articulate and assess its quality. This book was first published as a special issue of Research Papers in Education: Policy and Practice.

The last quarter of the twentieth century was a very important period in history of education. Beginning with the so-called 'Great Debate', the period witnessed intense public and political interest in educational issues, culminating in an almost unprecedented amount of education-related legislation, the most symbolic of which was the Education Reform Act of 1988. Some scholars have rightly claimed that the education system was 'transformed' during this period, pointing to major changes in the ways in which schools, further education colleges and universities were organised, managed and controlled. Others have claimed that these changes altered the power relationships which had underpinned the education system since 1944. Given the sheer scale and pace of the education-policy related reforms of this period, this edited collection brings together some of the leading scholars in education to reflect on the major legislative and structural changes in education over the past few decades. Published in the year of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Callaghan's Ruskin College speech in 1976, it provides a definitive contemporary history of education policy in the late twentieth century. The editors bring together some of the leading educationalists to reflect on the major legislative and structural changes in the field over the last twenty five years. The book will be of use to education students on undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as students and academics working in social policy.

Britain's two recent referenda - on Brexit (2016) and on Scottish independence (2014) - have raised in the public mind fundamental questions about the future of the UK. It seems that for the first time, the public, the media and the political elite have woken up to the fact that in different parts of the UK, there are different histories, different aspirations and different imagined futures in relation to a whole range of vitally important political issues. But what the public debate often fails to recognise is that in many areas of public life - perhaps especially education - the UK is already a federal state and in key respects has been so for many years. The aim of this volume is therefore to take stock: to try and capture what the current state of educational policy and practice is across the whole of the UK. This has been achieved by commissioning two different papers from each of the four countries - Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England. The first is an overview, exploring the distinctive history, principles and current policies of each country. The second paper has been specifically chosen as a case study of a key policy that highlights the distinctiveness of each country - the Foundation Phase for Wales, assessment policy in Scotland, 'shared education' initiatives in Northern Ireland and higher education policy in England. Taken together these eight papers give an important insight into the complexities of educational policy and practice across the whole of the UK today. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Oxford Review of Education.

This text explores the issue of what role, if any, higher education should play in intial teacher training. The authors argue for the continued involvement of higher education in teacher training and cover such areas as the 1994 Education Act, the role of universities and the schools consortia.

This text explores the issue of what role, if any, higher education should play in intial teacher training. The authors argue for the continued involvement of higher education in teacher training and cover such areas as the 1994 Education Act, the role of universities and the schools consortia.

In the UK and elsewhere, the training of teachers is increasingly seen as a matter of partnership between schools and institutions of higher education. There is thus an urgent need within the profession to define more carefully what the role of teachers acting as mentors should be. Clearly some aspects of professional knowledge can only be acquired from practical experience in school, and this book draws on extensive research on students' school-based learning to isolate and analyse those aspects. Like any form of teaching, mentoring, the authors suggest, must be built on a clear understanding of the learning processes it is intended to support. In this book, they report on their research into the nature of students' school-based learning and what this means for the role of the mentoring.

In the UK and elsewhere, the training of teachers is increasingly seen as a matter of partnership between schools and institutions of higher education. There is thus an urgent need within the profession to define more carefully what the role of teachers acting as mentors should be. Clearly some aspects of professional knowledge can only be acquired from practical experience in school, and this book draws on extensive research on students' school-based learning to isolate and analyze those aspects. Like any form of teaching, mentoring, the authors suggest, must be built on a clear understanding of the learning processes it is intended to support. In this book, they report on their research into the nature of students' school-based learning and what this means for the role of the mentoring. Previous publications from John Furlong include "Deviant Pupils" (Open University Press, 1985) and "Initial Teacher Training and the Role of the Pupil" (Open University Press, 1988).

The last quarter of the twentieth century was a very important period in history of education. Beginning with the so-called 'Great Debate', the period witnessed intense public and political interest in educational issues, culminating in an almost unprecedented amount of education-related legislation, the most symbolic of which was the Education Reform Act of 1988. Some scholars have rightly claimed that the education system was 'transformed' during this period, pointing to major changes in the ways in which schools, further education colleges and universities were organised, managed and controlled. Others have claimed that these changes altered the power relationships which had underpinned the education system since 1944. Given the sheer scale and pace of the education-policy related reforms of this period, this edited collection brings together some of the leading scholars in education to reflect on the major legislative and structural changes in education over the past few decades. Published in the year of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Callaghan's Ruskin College speech in 1976, it provides a definitive contemporary history of education policy in the late twentieth century. The editors bring together some of the leading educationalists to reflect on the major legislative and structural changes in the field over the last twenty five years. The book will be of use to education students on undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as students and academics working in social policy.

Education - An Anatomy of the Discipline focuses on the development of the discipline of education, how it is understood and practised in contemporary universities, and the potential threats to its future. As the author, John Furlong argues, disciplines are not only intellectually coherent fields of study; they also have a political life, they are argued for, supported, challenged and debated. Nowhere is this more true than in the discipline of education. In this authoritative text, Furlong describes the history as well as the current state of the discipline of education in universities. He also explores the range of national and global changes that have helped to shape the discipline in recent years. Education's final 'arrival' in the university sector coincided with major changes in universities themselves. Today, universities are very diverse institutions: they no longer have a sense of essential purpose and have largely accepted their loss of autonomy, especially in education where government intervention is particularly strong. If education is now fully integrated into universities, then, like the system as a whole, it urgently needs to find a voice, set out a vision for itself, and state what its purpose should be within a university in the modern world. The book therefore brings together four vitally important topics: -the changing nature of the university -the academic and scholarly study of education as a field -the professional education and training of teachers -the nature and organisation of educational research. Education - An Anatomy of the Discipline will occupy a central place in contemporary literature about education; although based on evidence from British universities, its implications are important across the world. The book will be invaluable reading for all professionals working in university departments and faculties of education as well as those with an interest in the changing role of the university in contemporary society.

During the last 20 years, governments around the world have paid increasing attention to the recruitment, preparation, and retention of teachers. Teacher supply and teacher quality have become significant policy issues, taken up by policy-makers at the highest levels. This is because teachers are now seen by many governments as the 'lynch-pin' of educational, economic and social reform. This volume grew out of a recognition by the Editors of the growing significance of teacher education policy and a curiosity about international trends and differences. The book brings together nine papers from leading academics around the world: from the UK (England and Scotland), the USA, Australia, Singapore and Belgium, plus a joint paper comparing Namibia and the USA. Taken together, the papers reveal the complexities and contradictions of international trends. On the one hand, they demonstrate that there is indeed a common direction of travel along the lines encouraged by international bodies such as the OECD. At the same time however, the papers also reveal important differences among countries in terms of how they are addressing common aspirations as well as some apparent contradictions within the policies of individual nations. This book was based on the special issue of Teachers and Teaching.

Are the disciplines of education ghosts of a productive past or creative and useful forms of inquiry? Are they in a demographic and organisational crisis today? The contribution of the 'foundation disciplines' of sociology, psychology, philosophy, history and economics to the study of education has always been contested in the UK and in much of the English-speaking world. But such debates are now being brought to a head in education by the demographic crisis. Recent research has shown that with the an ageing population of education academics, in ten years' time, there could be very few disciplinary specialists left working within faculties of education in UK universities. But does that matter and is the UK no more than a special case? How does this 'crisis' look from Europe where the disciplines of education are more embedded, and from the USA with its more diverse higher education system? In this book, leading scholars - including A.H. Halsey, David Bridges, John Furlong, Hugh Lauder, Martin Lawn and Sheldon Rothblatt - consider the changing fortunes of each discipline as education moved away from the dominance of psychology in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s as a result of the growing importance of the other disciplines and new social questions, and how the changing epistemological and political debates of the last twenty years haves resulted in their progressive demise. Finally, the book confronts the question as to whether the disciplines have a place in education in the twenty-first century. The book brings the coming crisis into the public view and explores the issue of the past, current and future relevance of the disciplines to the study of education. It will be of interest to all international academics and researchers in the field of education and the contributory disciplines as well as to students on educational research methods courses.

Learning with technology is viewed globally as crucial to establishing a skilled workforce and empowering citizens by offering opportunities to those who would be otherwise excluded. Governments around the world have therefore set targets and developed policies to help all adults learn, work and live with the support of information and communications technologies (ICTs).
This illuminating and engaging book sheds light on the ways in which adults in the 21st century interact with ICTs for learning at home, work and within the wider community. Based on one of the first large-scale academic research projects in this area, the authors present their rich and detailed findings to generate practical recommendations for the use of new technology in a learning society, inviting debate on:
* why ICTs are believed to be capable of affecting positive change in adult learning;
* the drawbacks and limits of ICT in adult education;
* what makes a lifelong learner;
* what people use ICT for in the home, work and community;
* the wider social, economic, cultural and political realities of the information age and the learning society.
"Adult Learning in the Digital Age "addresses key questions and provides a sound empirical foundation to the existing debate, highlighting the 'messy' realities of the learning society and 'e-learning' rhetoric, and telling the story of those who are excluded from the learning society, and offering a set of powerful and stark recommendations for practitioners, policy-makers, and politicians, as well as researchers and students.

It’s 1969. John and his friend Mike are living and working in Manhattan, making money for their big trip. As they travel, John is trying to figure out what to do with his life and what his values really are. That summer, New York becomes the epicentre of ‘Alternative America’ – drugs, meditation, the anti-war movement, civil rights, feminism, gay liberation. Though enjoyable, John eventually becomes disillusioned – hoping to find something more ‘real’ in the next stage of his travels. He was not to be disappointed. In the Caribbean, John and Mike experience the beauty and simplicity of island life at a time before the development of mass tourism. But they also have to confront the reality of a collapsing British Empire which lays bare the legacy of 400 years of colonialism and slavery - the poverty and corruption that was always there but that the Brits refused to see. Then on the tiny island of Carriacou - a dependency of Grenada- they meet Father Pat, a charismatic Marxist priest who asks John to join him in his political struggle by helping to establish a community newspaper. The project falls apart when Father Pat is recalled to the US leaving John wondering what he has learned and who the priest really was. Only now, 50 years on, does John finally discover Father Pat’s identity and his role in the Grenadian Marxist-Leninist revolution of 1979 – that country’s ill-fated bid to build a more just society.

Education - An Anatomy of the Discipline focuses on the development of the discipline of education, how it is understood and practised in contemporary universities, and the potential threats to its future. As the author, John Furlong argues, disciplines are not only intellectually coherent fields of study; they also have a political life, they are argued for, supported, challenged and debated. Nowhere is this more true than in the discipline of education. In this authoritative text, Furlong describes the history as well as the current state of the discipline of education in universities. He also explores the range of national and global changes that have helped to shape the discipline in recent years. Education's final 'arrival' in the university sector coincided with major changes in universities themselves. Today, universities are very diverse institutions: they no longer have a sense of essential purpose and have largely accepted their loss of autonomy, especially in education where government intervention is particularly strong. If education is now fully integrated into universities, then, like the system as a whole, it urgently needs to find a voice, set out a vision for itself, and state what its purpose should be within a university in the modern world. The book therefore brings together four vitally important topics: -the changing nature of the university -the academic and scholarly study of education as a field -the professional education and training of teachers -the nature and organisation of educational research. Education - An Anatomy of the Discipline will occupy a central place in contemporary literature about education; although based on evidence from British universities, its implications are important across the world. The book will be invaluable reading for all professionals working in university departments and faculties of education as well as those with an interest in the changing role of the university in contemporary society.