Education is considered central to social mobility and, following a drive to raise learners’ aspirations, an ‘aspiration industry’ has emerged. However, the desire to leave school early should not be regarded as evidence of students lacking ambition. This book traces the emergence of the aspiration industry and argues that to have ambitions that do not require qualifications is different, but not wrong. Reviewing the performance of six schools in England, their Ofsted reports and responses, it evaluates underpinning assumptions of what makes an effective school. This book critically examines neo-liberal education policy developments, including the 1988 Education Reform Act, and the political discourse around changing explanations of education ‘failure’ with the rise in the marketisation of education.

Education is considered central to social mobility and, following a drive to raise learners’ aspirations, an ‘aspiration industry’ has emerged. However, the desire to leave school early should not be regarded as evidence of students lacking ambition. This book traces the emergence of the aspiration industry and argues that to have ambitions that do not require qualifications is different, but not wrong. Reviewing the performance of six schools in England, their Ofsted reports and responses, it evaluates underpinning assumptions of what makes an effective school. This book critically examines neo-liberal education policy developments, including the 1988 Education Reform Act, and the political discourse around changing explanations of education ‘failure’ with the rise in the marketisation of education.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- 1 Introduction: Conceptualizing the Intricacies that are Concomitant in Educational Policymaking that Determine Success, Backfire, and Everything in Between -- 2 How Urban Education Choice Campaigns in Detroit Masqueraded as Equity and Social Justice and Worsened the Status Quo -- 3 When Policies that Impact Students with Significant Disabilities in Michigan Backfire -- 4 When Zero-Tolerance Discipline Policies in the United States Backfire -- 5 When Free Schools in England and Charter Schools in the United States Backfire -- 6 When High-Stakes Accountability Measures Impact Promising Practices in an Indigenous-Serving Charter School -- 7 How Public-Private Partnerships Contribute to Educational Policy Failure -- 8 The Failure of Accountability in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program -- 9 How Centralized Implementation Policies Failed the Austrian New Middle School Process -- 10 The Unintended Consequences of School Vouchers: Rise, Rout, and Rebirth -- 11 Challenges and Unintended Consequences of Student-Centered Learning -- 12 School Discipline Policies That Result in Unintended Consequences for Latino Male Students' College Aspirations -- 13 When Special Education Policy in Ontario Creates Unintended Consequences -- 14 Latina/o Farmworker Parent Leadership Retreats as Sites of Agency, Community Cultural Wealth, and Success -- 15 Bilingual and Biliterate Skills as Cross-Cultural Competence Success -- 16 Diversity-Driven Charters and the Construction of Urban School Success -- 17 Reflecting on the Institutional Processes for College Success Among Chicanos in the Context of Crisis -- 18 Reframing the Problematic Achievement Gap Narrative to Structure Educational Success -- Contributor Bios -- Index

The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education confronts the silent ascendancy of a therapeutic ethos across the educational system and into the workplace. Controversial and compelling, Kathryn Ecclestone and Dennis Hayes’ classic text uses a wealth of examples across the education system, from primary schools to university and the workplace, to show how therapeutic education is turning children, young people and adults into anxious and self-preoccupied individuals rather than aspiring, optimistic and resilient learners who want to know everything about the world. Remaining extremely topical, the chapters illuminate the powerful effects of therapeutic education, including: How therapeutic learning is taking shape, now and in the future How therapeutic ideas from popular culture have come to govern social thought and policies How the fostering of dependence and compulsory participation in therapeutic activities that encourage the disclosing of emotions, can undermine parents’ and teachers’ confidence and authority How therapeutic forms of teacher training undermine faith in the pursuit of knowledge How political initiatives in emotional literacy, emotional wellbeing and ‘positive mental health’ propagate a diminished view of human potential throughout the education system and the workplace. The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education is an eye-opening read for every teacher and leader across the field of education, and every parent and student, who is passionate about the power of knowledge to transform people’s lives. It is a call for a debate about the growing impact of therapeutic education and what it means for learning now and in the future.

Situating the cases of England and Australia within broader global policy trends, this book critically analyses what has gone wrong with education policy. Drawing on wide-ranging research, the authors issue a fundamental challenge to current policy orthodoxies, and identify policy alternatives to make education both better and fairer.

Contributed research papers.

Grounded in an extensive ethnographic account, Learning Privilege examines the concept of privilege itself and the cultural and social processes in schooling that reinforce and regenerate privilege.