This important account of the experiences of schooling of the pupils in a single comprehensive school is based on three years' field work which Stephen J. Ball spent as participant observer at 'Beachside Comprehensive'. First published in 1981, it is an institutional study in the tradition of Colin Lacey's Hightown Grammar and David Hargreaves' Social Relations in a Secondary School, and provides a deep and dynamic portrayal of a school in the process of radical change. Dr Ball raises important questions about the practice of comprehensive education through a detailed examination of the processes of selection and socialsation experienced by two cohorts of pupils moving through the school, one banded and the other taught in mixed-ability classes. This also reveals the way in which teachers confronted the problems of teaching mixed-ability classes and illustrates the enormous gap which existed between the rhetoric and the reality of comprehensive education. The book will be of interest to teachers and students of sociology and education, to school teachers and others concerned about the organisation of schools and educational policy.

First published in 1989. A provocative study of the radical changes that have taken place in education since 1976. Chitty analyzes the effects of recent legislative proposals on the education system and reveals the contradictions and tensions within New Right thinking.

Cover -- Half Title -- Dedication -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: Education, Politics and the State -- Chapter 1 The Evolution of the Comprehensive School 1944-76 -- Chapter 2 The Comprehensive System Under Attack 1970-76 -- Chapter 3 The Yellow Book, the Ruskin Speech and the Great Debate -- Chapter 4 Towards a National Curriculum: 1976-87 -- Chapter 5 The 'Secret Garden' Invaded: Central Control of the Curriculum, 1976-87 -- Chapter 6 Differentiation and Vocationalization -- Chapter 7 Early Attempts at Privatization: Choice, Competition and the Voucher -- Chapter 8 1987 and Beyond: The New Right Education Offensive -- Bibliography -- Index

This book presents a series of research biographies based on research experiences in the study of educational settings. The main aim is to provide a set of first person accounts on doing research that combine analysis with description. The contributors have been drawn from the disciplines of sociology and educational studies and have all conducted ethnographic work or case studies in a variety of educational settings.

This book brings together in one place Stephen Ball's key writings. Drawing on over 20 years' work, Professor Ball has selected his most seminal work - from education policy and sociology to his work on education and social class.

Originally published in 1984. The argument of this book is that the preceding 12 to 15 years saw significant changes in educationalists’ understanding and application of the concepts of leadership, and because of these changes two things happened. One, the relationship between participants changed; and two, policy and practice also changed. The papers in this collection have been specially commissioned or collected together with this thesis in mind. Each of them examines leadership with special reference to one or more aspects, sectors, roles or interests within the educational system of England and Wales.

This edited volume explores how Stephen Ball’s work has shaped the field of the sociology of education worldwide. Written by internationally based researchers who are Ball’s former PhD students, it draws on different strands of his work to show what it means to think, write, and do research inspired by Ball’s theory, methodology, and epistemology. The contributions revolve around a wide range of themes including: the ethics of doing educational research, disability studies, the bio-politics of the child’s soul, lived experiences of marginalisation in education, educating migrant and refugee women in the borderlands, and post-Brexit reflections on the Bologna process. Chapters draw on different lines of thought from the corpus of a significant and influential figure in the sociology of education to present, explicate, and discuss a wide range of research projects, themes, theoretical directions, as well as methodological approaches in the field of the sociology of education today. More than celebrating Ball’s scholarship, this volume shows new and innovative directions in the sociology of education. It will be highly relevant reading for researchers, scholars, and students in the sociology of education, educational policy, and politics and educational theory.