Creative teaching is an art form – aesthetic, intuitive and expressive. The proliferation of new educational policies in the early 1990s and the related increase in tensions and dilemmas facing schools, combined with the growing demand for a wider range of skills and knowledge among children meant that there was an even greater need for creative teaching than before the National Curriculum.Originally published in 1996, this book addresses this need by: exploring the features of cre...

Drawing on wide ranging research this book, originally published in 1997, explores how the policy changes of previous years were affecting primary teachers and their work at the time. Within the context of worldwide restructuring, the thoughts, feelings and activities of teachers in their daily work are examined. The core argument is that what used to be a complex but fulfilling job distinguished by professional dilemmas, which are amenable to professional skill, had become increasingly ma...

Since the 1992 Education Act inaugurated national arrangements for inspection, schools have operated within an 'inspection climate' which pervades every aspect of school life on a continual basis. The significance of OFSTED inspections cannot be overestimated. They are often the most challenging, searching, uncompromising and stressful events teacher have ever experienced. What effects do they have on teachers and their work, on their self and role, and on school policy and ethos? Drawing ...

Creative Learning in the Primary School uses ethnographic research to consider the main features of creative teaching and learning within the context of contemporary policy reforms. In particular, the authors are interested in the clash between two oppositional discourses - creativity and performativity - and how they are resolved in creative teacher practice. The book complements previous work by these authors on creative teaching by giving more consideration to creative learning....

This key text covers the knowledge and skills that social workers need to get into practice with children and families.The book covers core components of child and family work such as building effective relationships, assessment, child protection practice and working with the law. Clear and accessible, this practical book features case studies, questions and exercises throughout. This third edition covers the very latest developments in child and family work, including changes in p...

Positive Alternatives to School Exclusion looks at what schools can do to build more harmonious communities and engage students - particularly those at risk of exclusion - more productively in all areas of school life. It describes the Positive Alternatives to School Exclusion Project, a multi-phase, collaborative initiative based at the School of Education, University of Cambridge.Drawing on the perspectives of staff and pupils, the authors provide detailed case studies of...

This text explores the social status of children, through consideration of their positioning in a range of social settings and in sociological theory. It focuses on children as social actors in constructing the social order and participating in it.

This sourcebook offers a unique summary into all that was important in primary education during the 1990s. It provides almost fifty key readings on the field which are grouped around six major topics:* learners* teachers* classrooms* curriculum* assessment* school and education policy.Over half of the readings focus on real life cases - such as pupils, teachers, classrooms or schools - as a means of conveying some of the interpersonal subt...

Ethnography has much to offer teachers, especially at a time of growing interest in the `teacher-reseacher' and in `action' and `collaborative' research.

Gerald Grace here explores the concept of role conflict and the current theorizing about the problems of the teacher’s role. He investigates four potential problem areas – role diffuseness, role vulnerability, role commitment versus career orientation, and value conflict – in a sample of one hundred and fifty secondary school teachers in a Midland town. The analysis shows how a teacher’s commitment to a particular set of values exposes him or her to conflict in an achievement-oriented and ...

`The ′Raising Early Achievement in Literacy′ or REAL project was the result of a collaboration between the University of Sheffield, Sheffield LEA and schools and centres across the city of Sheffield, starting in 1995. For those interested in developing their own projects in this field it will provide essential information. It contains many examples of work carried out this in this project.Many examples are given that could prompt practitioners to identify ways in which they too cou...

National Curriculum: National Disaster? looks beyond the classroom and discusses the way in which the infrastructure of school codes of conduct, the physical environment of school sites and the hierarchy of human resources within schools impact on the aims and reality of the National Curriculum. An alternative skills-based educational programme is also outlined which may be more likely to fulfil the expectations that many parents now hold for the education of their children.