Education is a social practice that poses ethical questions of policy and practice at every level and at almost every turn - what we teach, how we teach, how we organise educational provision, how we research it, who controls it, and what principles drive policy nationally and internationally. This collection is rooted in the author's experience in the education system nationally and internationally over half a century, and reflects both the educational history of this period and the author's experience as a teacher, parent, school governor, teacher trainer, educational researcher, senior leader in higher education, and advisor to governments in many parts of the world. It is, then, historically located, but the approach to ethical questions is primarily in the tradition of analytic philosophy, and applied and situated ethics.

These kids today ... just might change the world.

Do you ever feel like life has handed you lemons? Within the pages of this book you will discover kids who have been handed lemons. Yet, instead of allowing these lemons to make them sour, they have chosen to make the sweetest lemonade you have ever tasted. If you like a good story, you will love this book. David Bridges draws you into each and every story as if you were there.

For eight years David has taught an middle school speech class called Teen Leadership. During that time, David and his students laughed together and many times cried together. Most importantly however, they challenged each other to fulfill their destiny. While so many of his students had their innocence stolen from them sat such a young age, they refuse to quit. They will never give up. Excuses will not be found anywhere on the radar of these young heroes.

David currently serves as a leadership consultant for The Flippen Group. He now trains teachers throughout the U. S. how to capture the hearts of the students they serve every day.

If you are a teacher, parent, youth pastor or community volunteer working with teenagers you will be encouraged and inspired to keep battling for our kids. If you are a teenager, taste the lemonade these kids have made, and maybe make some lemonade of your own.

David loves teaching and working with educators. David's wife, Robbin, his two oldest daughters and son-in-law are teachers as well. His youngest daughter is studying Music Education at Baylor University. David and Robbin currently reside in Texas.

The essays bring to contemporary debates about educational research both a first hand familiarity with the practices and arguments of the educational research community and a clear grasp of the ways in which philosophical sources and analysis can inform them. They are both measured and passionate - sparked by an intense personal curiosity, which takes Bridges into unexpected resources and territory (such as the insights of museology into debates on educational research as narrative fiction) as well as more familiar material relating to, for example, issues about the assessment of quality of educational research and the concern for its relevance.

The book makes an articulate case, by its own example as well as in its argument, for the continuing contribution of philosophical thinking to the development and critique of educational research. It will be essential reading for researchers already engaged in this development and for masters and doctoral students who are coming to terms with educational research, and it offers a contribution to the literature in philosophy of education which is richly grounded in the wider field of educational research.

Universities and societies around the world are involved in significant transition. Universities are now invited to expand their central aims and purposes in order to embrace a role in relation to the development of the societies in which they are located. This change of focus has major implications for curricula, modes of teaching and the student body.

International contributors to this wideranging text discuss different aspects of the phenomenon of globalisation in relation to higher education, but also in relation to moves by nation states to devolve government to regional and subregional bodies and the implications this has for educational systems.

This book provides critical and reflective discussions of a wide range of issues arising in education at the interface between philosophy, research, policy and practice. It addresses epistemological questions about the intellectual resources that underpin educational research, explores the relationship between philosophy and educational research, and examines debates about truth and truthfulness in educational research. Furthermore, it looks at issues to do with the relationship between research, practice and policy, and discusses questions about ethics and educational research. Finally, the book delves into the deeply contested area of research quality assessment. The book is based on extensive engagement in empirically based educational research projects and in the institutional and professional management of research, as well as in philosophical work. It clarifies what is at stake in international debates around educational research and teases out the nature of the arguments, and, where argument permits, the conclusions to which these point. The book discusses these familiar themes using less predictable sources and points of reference, such as: codes of social obligation in contemporary Egypt and New Zealand; the 'Soviet', and the inspiration of the nineteenth-century philosopher, Abai in contemporary Kazakhstan; seventeenth-century France, Pascal, and the disputes between Jesuits and Jansenites; eighteenth-century Italy, Giambattista Vico, and la scienzia nuova; 'educational magic' in traditional Ethiopia; and ends at a banquet with Socrates and dinner with wine and a conversation-loving Montaigne.

The book, first published in 1983, explores the argument that justifies mixed ability groupings in schools and the consequences of practicing the different justificatory arguments. The issues to be dealt with by staff making decisions about grouping arrangements in their schools are clearly worked out from basic principles rooted in social philosophy. The ideas of social justice and fraternity, implicit and unexamined in much discussions about mixed-ability grouping are here explained and their limitations and implications described. The issues discussed in this book are not only important for teachers and for those studying to become teachers, but also for school governors, administrators and parents who can gain a better understanding of the school system through this study.

The book, first published in 1983, explores the argument that justifies mixed ability groupings in schools and the consequences of practicing the different justificatory arguments. The issues to be dealt with by staff making decisions about grouping arrangements in their schools are clearly worked out from basic principles rooted in social philosophy. The ideas of social justice and fraternity, implicit and unexamined in much discussions about mixed-ability grouping are here explained and their limitations and implications described. The issues discussed in this book are not only important for teachers and for those studying to become teachers, but also for school governors, administrators and parents who can gain a better understanding of the school system through this study.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Across the globe educators are being required to respond to a changing political environment. New nations emerge out of the collapse of old empires; new democracies struggle out of old structures of oppression. Driven on by the fierce competitiveness of the "tiger economies" of the east, old social welfare-based democracies are transformed into new market driven enterprise societies. The essays in this collection are a response from 22 educators to these changes and to the reassessment that they provoke of some of the fundamental principles which shape educational thought and practice. They focus in particular on key clusters of issues to do with the role of education in cultivating: national identity - what role might nationalistic education play in the context of a democratic liberal education?; market principles - contributors offer different perspectives on the internationally pervasive application of the principles of the market economy to education and the consequent "commodification" of learning; personal autonomy - educators examine different dimentions of the contested notion of autonomy itself and the related discourses of edification.

This text offers descriptions and analyses of some of the different ways in which schools and other educational institutions have started to establish new collaborative relationships in today's competitive educational marketplace. Using case studies, the book describes examples of such collaborative structures.; Educational consortia have been established as a vehicle for professional and curriculum development, as a source of mutual support and as a condition of mutual survival. As the "LEA monopolies" have been forced to shed many of their traditional functions or schools have opted out, schools have found it necessary to re-create parts of their collaborative structures out of sheer self- Interest.; For Some Educators Who Continue To Be Attached To Notions Of "an educational service" and professional collegiality in the provision of such a service, inter-institutional collaboration becomes seen as something to be valued independently of the instrumental benefits which it provides. For this variety of reasons, consortium working and collaborative structures seem set to develop in spite of, or as a necessary antodote to, educational markets. Understanding the role and operation of such structures is a necessity for educational managers in all parts of the educational service.

This text offers descriptions and analyses of some of the different ways in which schools and other educational institutions have started to establish new collaborative relationships in today's competitive educational marketplace. Using case studies, the book describes examples of such collaborative structures.; Educational consortia have been established as a vehicle for professional and curriculum development, as a source of mutual support and as a condition of mutual survival. As the "LEA monopolies" have been forced to shed many of their traditional functions or schools have opted out, schools have found it necessary to re-create parts of their collaborative structures out of sheer self- Interest.; For Some Educators Who Continue To Be Attached To Notions Of "an educational service" and professional collegiality in the provision of such a service, inter-institutional collaboration becomes seen as something to be valued independently of the instrumental benefits which it provides. For this variety of reasons, consortium working and collaborative structures seem set to develop in spite of, or as a necessary antodote to, educational markets. Understanding the role and operation of such structures is a necessity for educational managers in all parts of the educational service.

This collection of essays debates the application of market principles to and within the context of education. The contributors are all leading figures in their field, presenting their ideas in an accessible style to the lay reader. Throughout, the educational and public policy issues raised by the application of market principles to education are closely examined.

This book provides critical and reflective discussions of a wide range of issues arising in education at the interface between philosophy, research, policy and practice. It addresses epistemological questions about the intellectual resources that underpin educational research, explores the relationship between philosophy and educational research, and examines debates about truth and truthfulness in educational research. Furthermore, it looks at issues to do with the relationship between research, practice and policy, and discusses questions about ethics and educational research. Finally, the book delves into the deeply contested area of research quality assessment. The book is based on extensive engagement in empirically based educational research projects and in the institutional and professional management of research, as well as in philosophical work. It clarifies what is at stake in international debates around educational research and teases out the nature of the arguments, and, where argument permits, the conclusions to which these point. The book discusses these familiar themes using less predictable sources and points of reference, such as: codes of social obligation in contemporary Egypt and New Zealand; the 'Soviet', and the inspiration of the nineteenth-century philosopher, Abai in contemporary Kazakhstan; seventeenth-century France, Pascal, and the disputes between Jesuits and Jansenites; eighteenth-century Italy, Giambattista Vico, and la scienzia nuova; 'educational magic' in traditional Ethiopia; and ends at a banquet with Socrates and dinner with wine and a conversation-loving Montaigne.

Universities and societies around the world are involved in significant transition. Universities are now invited to expand their central aims and purposes in order to embrace a role in relation to the development of the societies in which they are located. This change of focus has major implications for curricula, modes of teaching and the student body. International contributors to this wideranging text discuss different aspects of the phenomenon of globalisation in relation to higher education, but also in relation to moves by nation states to devolve government to regional and subregional bodies and the implications this has for educational systems.

The measured and passionate essays in this volume bring to contemporary debates about educational research both a first-hand familiarity with the practices and arguments of the educational research community and a clear grasp of the ways in which philosophical sources and analysis can inform them. It will be essential reading for researchers, masters and doctoral students who are coming to terms with educational research.