"This is a timely book, enabling teachers to reflect critically upon their existing work-place practices, which have been so powerfully shaped by the target culture and the logic of performativity that has underpinned it for two decades. More importantly it will empower primary school teachers to play a more active role in effecting curriculum and pedagogical change in their schools and classrooms."Professor John Elliot, School of Education, University of East Anglia, UK This book encourages the reader to question the existing culture of schooling and its practices, which have been shaped and dominated by a target led and outcomes driven agenda. The book draws attention to some of the conflicts that arise in the demand for performance on the one hand and teachers' responsiveness to children and their learning on the other. Sue Cox sets out to show how change might be based on clear understandings of how children learn and how teachers contribute to that learning. She does this by providing frameworks for change and shows how, from these perspectives, participation is key to children's education, both as an account of their learning and as a democratic principle. She explores the potential for transformation in teachers working collaboratively with children in areas such as interaction, curriculum and assessment. An underlying aim of the book is to provide the tools for teachers to develop a principled approach to what they do and how they think in order to challenge, and to re-construct entrenched practices and thinking. This book provides thoughtful reading and promotes reflective thinking for primary teachers and teachers in training, offering insights into new ways of approaching and developing primary education. Sue Cox is Senior Lecturer for The School of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of East Anglia, UK.

"This is a timely book, enabling teachers to reflect critically upon their existing work-place practices, which have been so powerfully shaped by the target culture and the logic of performativity that has underpinned it for two decades. More importantly it will empower primary school teachers to play a more active role in effecting curriculum and pedagogical change in their schools and classrooms." Professor John Elliot, School of Education, University of East Anglia, UK This book encourages you to question the existing culture of schooling, its principles and practices. Current practices have been shaped and dominated by a target led and outcomes driven agenda. The book addresses some of the conflicts that arise in the demand for performance on the one hand and teachers' responsiveness to children and their learning on the other. Sue Cox sets out to show how change might be based on clear understandings of how children learn and how teachers contribute to that learning. She does this by providing frameworks for change and shows how, from these perspectives, participation is key to children's learning. She then goes on to explore the implications for teachers working collaboratively with children in areas such as interaction, curriculum and assessment. An underlying aim of the book is to provide the tools for teachers to develop a principled approach to what they do and how they think in order to challenge some entrenched practices and thinking. This book provides thoughtful reading and promotes reflective thinking for primary teachers, teachers in training and researchers with insight into new ways of thinking about and developing primary education.

First published in 1982, this work revolutionized the theory and practice of education reform. Now 25 years later, the fourth edition of Fullans groundbreaking book continues to be the definitive compendium to all aspects of the management of educational change--a powerful resource for everyone involved in school reform.

New Perspectives in Educational Leadership examines educational administration and leadership within the complex social, political, and community contexts that inform and influence the work of today's educational leaders. With particular attention to the implications and larger contexts of shifting demographics, high-stakes accountability, and globalization on schools and society in the twenty-first century, this volume seeks to advance lines of inquiry presented in other areas of education research, that have yet to be fully explored or imagined in the field of educational leadership. This unique blend of empirical, theoretical, and conceptual research by both established and emerging scholars in the field directly acknowledges and addresses the demands of leading increasingly diverse and complex school communities. Topics include: the social and cultural dynamics of leadership, reflective practice, politics of equity and adequacy, critical servant leadership, and the possibilities of transformative leadership within these dynamic educational contexts. As a primary or supplementary text in educational administration, leadership, and foundations courses, New Perspectives in Educational Leadership provides a much-needed complement to the traditional topics of instructional leadership and education management given the expanding and increasingly complex conditions that face educational administrators and school leaders today.

Americans have long recognized that investments in public education contribute to the common good, enhancing national prosperity and supporting stable families, neighborhoods, and communities. Education is even more critical today, in the face of economic, environmental, and social challenges. Today's children can meet future challenges if their schooling and informal learning activities prepare them for adult roles as citizens, employees, managers, parents, volunteers, and entrepreneurs. To achieve their full potential as adults, young people need to develop a range of skills and knowledge that facilitate mastery and application of English, mathematics, and other school subjects. At the same time, business and political leaders are increasingly asking schools to develop skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and self-management - often referred to as "21st century skills." Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century describes this important set of key skills that increase deeper learning, college and career readiness, student-centered learning, and higher order thinking. These labels include both cognitive and non-cognitive skills- such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, effective communication, motivation, persistence, and learning to learn. 21st century skills also include creativity, innovation, and ethics that are important to later success and may be developed in formal or informal learning environments. This report also describes how these skills relate to each other and to more traditional academic skills and content in the key disciplines of reading, mathematics, and science. Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century summarizes the findings of the research that investigates the importance of such skills to success in education, work, and other areas of adult responsibility and that demonstrates the importance of developing these skills in K-16 education. In this report, features related to learning these skills are identified, which include teacher professional development, curriculum, assessment, after-school and out-of-school programs, and informal learning centers such as exhibits and museums.

In today’s modern climate, education and learning take place in multiple and diverse spaces. Increasingly, these spaces are both physical and virtual in nature. Access to and use of information and communication technologies, and the emergence of knowledge-based economies necessitate an understanding of the plurality of spaces (such as homes, workplaces, international space and cyberspace) in which learning can take place. The spaces of policy making with respect to education are also being transformed, away from traditional centres of policy formation towards the incorporation of a wider range of actors and sites. These changes coincide with a more general interest in space and spatial theory across the social sciences, where notions of simultaneity and diversity replace more modernist conceptions of linear progress and development through time. This volume proffers a unique perspective on the transformation of education in the 21st century, by bringing together leading researchers in education, sociology and geography to address directly questions of space in relation to education and learning. This collection of essays: examines the changing and diverse spaces and concepts of education (occurring simultaneously at different scales and in different parts of the world) explores where education and learning take place discusses how spaces of education vary at different stages (compulsory schooling, tertiary and higher education, adult education and workplace learning) inspects the ways in which the meanings attached to education and learning change in different national and regional contexts. Changing Spaces of Education is an important and timely contribution to a growing area of concern within the social sciences and amongst practitioners and policy-makers, reflecting an urgent need to understand the ways in which both education and learning are being reconfigured, not just nationally, but also internationally and transnationally. It is essential reading for final-year undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers in geography, sociology, education and policy studies, with an aim, too, of informing policy and practice in this area.