This book deals with one of the most urgent, damaging, and complex issues affecting young lives and contemporary society in general - the escalating high school dropout rate. Though against the wishes of teachers and school administrators, young people's decision to leave school is usually made under circumstances that provide little time or space for discussion. This book provides a disturbing account of how students' voices are over-ridden - lost in the imposition of curriculum and the rush to impose testing, accountability, and management regimes on schools. 'Dropping Out', Drifting Off, Being Excluded reveals the complex stories that surround identity formation in young lives and the «interactive trouble» as young people struggle to be heard within inhospitable schools and an equally unhelpful education system.

The Different Ways of Being an Educator series highlights the shifts and movements educators make in a flexi school context. Flexi schools offer programs that are responsive to the needs of young people who face complexities in their lives that have created barriers to learning in conventional schools. Not all flexi schools are the same, but they have some common features and practice frameworks. In Relational Practicethe first in a three-book seriesthe author explores an educational model for those who seek to give disenfranchised young people access to safe and dynamic learning communities. Drawing on stories from experienced practitioners working with young people in flexi schools, the author shares insights about re-engaging young people and effective ways of working with colleagues in multidisciplinary teams. The concepts are presented in easy-to-access, clearly themed vignettes from educators. Each element is accompanied by questions that guide staff to engage in critical reflection individually, within teams, and with mentors and supervisors. For educators in any context, the series offers practical strategies and relational ways for educators to support young people to remain connected and engaged in learning at school.

Big Fish, Little Fish: Teaching and Learning in the Middle Years provides pre-service and early career teachers with a pathway to understanding the needs of students as they make the important transition from primary to secondary schooling. The book explores contemporary challenges for teaching and learning in the middle years, with a focus on student experience, identity, engagement and resilience. Key issues, such as teaching academically at-risk students, the impact of education policy on middle years students, and teacher preparation and identity, are given comprehensive coverage. Unique to this text is its focus on and analysis of the history of middle-years education, as well as its in-depth discussion of the experiences of young Indigenous and Māori students. Drawing on the wide-ranging expertise of its contributors, Big Fish, Little Fish prepares pre-service teachers to best meet the needs of students as they enter the challenging middle years of their education.

'Can I Play with Madness? Metal, Dissonance, Madness and Alienation' is an interdisciplinary publication that presents new, experimental and original work on the relationships between heavy metal music culture, mental health and well-being.

This collection explores the political philosophy and theory foundations for educational administration and leadership as they influence our understanding, analysis and practice in the field. The first section, "Political Philosophy: The Foundations," discusses the work of such writers as Machiavelli, Kant and Hegel, Hayek, Habermas, and Bourdieu as their theories apply to the educational context. The second section, "Political Analysis: The Critique," examines various types of political analyses, such as the politics of the policy process, minority politics, civil society, micro-politics, community politics, and cosmopolitan theory. The last section, "Current Political Controversies: The Practice," addresses current topical issues of a political nature, including the serving of the state economic agenda, the democratisation of educational organisations, the neo-conservative agenda, and globalisation. The broad international perspective from which these topics are covered makes this volume an excellent addition to the fields of educational leadership, organizational studies, and educational administration theory.

Many books on grief lay out a model to be followed, either for bereaved persons to live through or for professionals to practice, and usually follow some familiar prescriptions for what people should do to reach an accommodation with loss. The Crafting of Grief is different: it focuses on conversations that help people chart their own path through grief. Authors Hedtke and Winslade argue convincingly that therapists and counselors can support people more by helping them craft their own responses to bereavement rather than trying to squeeze experiences into a model. In the pages of this book, readers will learn how to develop lines of inquiry based on the concept of continuing bonds, and they’ll discover ways to use these ideas to help the bereaved craft stories that remember loved ones’ lives.

In this two volume set, educators explore the intersection of gender and education. Their entries deal with educational theories, research, curricula, practices, personnel, and policies, but also with variations in the gendering of education across historical and cultural contexts. The various contributors discuss gender as a social construction. The latest research on boys and masculinities, as well as girls and feminism, is included. The entries in this work cover the breadth of topics related to gender and education. They provide reference information on the history and condition of gender and education from elementary to high school. Entries cover such topics as: alternative schools, historically black colleges and universities in the United States, military colleges and academies, private and public single-sex and co-educational schools, literacy, mathematics achievement, women's centers, teacher interactions with girls and boys, affirmative action in U.S. higher education, sororities and fraternities, educator sexual misconduct, expectations of teachers for boys and girls, heterosexism and homophobia, bullying, harassment, and violence among students, salaries of male and female educators, school choice and gender equity, disabled students and gender equity, Title IX and school sports, black feminism, womanism, and queer theory.