How can opportunities for teaching and learning be improved to ensure that many more people participate, gain qualifications and obtain decent jobs? Will government policies enable us to achieve these goals? What new ideas do we need to ensure a more inclusive, equitable and efficient learning system? These are some of the main concerns which underlie this thought-provoking book coming from a major research project looking at how policies affect learners, tutors, managers and institutional...

Social Work: The Basics is an insightful introduction to the often misrepresented world of social work. This accessible book presents a broad view of contemporary social work, exploring its roots and its possible future. It dispels myths surrounding social work, addresses media debates, and offers a balanced account of what social workers do. The book argues for a social work that is partisan in support of social justice. Questions covered include:How did social work...

What does working in partnership look like in practice?Getting multi-agency working right is an exciting but challenging goal in early years care and education; this book suggests ways to draw together the different professional ideas, methods and targets.Enhancing the delivery of services to children, parents and communities is essential if we are to address the detrimental effects of poverty and exclusion. Looking at the Birth to 8 age range and drawing on interviews with...

′Wow, this book has some inspiring ideas... It comes at a perfect time as schools try to mesh school improvement with performance management, new standards for various career stages and staff development... Well written, with an attractive layout and a consistently clear voice, it draws on wide and up-to-date research and writing from all parts of the United Kingdom... There are no easy answers in this book, but plenty of powerful ideas that might help us ask useful questions about how CPD...

The curriculum is a live issue in universities across the world. Many stakeholders – governments, employers, professional and disciplinary groups and parents – express strong and often conflicting views about what higher education should achieve for its students.Many universities are reviewing their curricula at an institutional level, aware that they are in a competitive climate in which league tables encourage students to see themselves as consumers and the university as a produc...

School leadership and management are fundamental components of school improvement. This is the first study of its kind to relate the principles of effective leadership to the broad spectrum of school life in Ireland.A key resource for school leaders in their personal and professional study, this book critically appraises issues in leading and managing schools. The editors bring together an array of renowned scholars to inform and stimulate the debate on the future of leadership dev...

Collaboration and networking have recently come to the fore as major school improvement strategies in a number of countries. A variety of initiatives, from government and other agencies, have encouraged collaboration and led to a lot of practical activity in this area. However, at present there are no texts in education that explore collaboration and networking from both a theoretical and practical perspective.In this book, we aim to provide a theoretical background to educational ...

Written to meet the needs of teachers, lecturers, tutors and trainers, this is the essential guide to understanding the key issues in learning and teaching in social policy and social work - as well as related areas such as early childhood studies, youth and community work and probation studies. The field of social care is constantly changing, and this book acts an accessible introduction to all the core concerns that will be critical to teaching professionals working in the field today. K...

Going Local explains how social work students and practitioners can develop approaches to neighbourhood work, to engage communities and neighbourhoods more purposefully and to work with citizens and other mainstream and community service providers to build the capacity of neighbourhoods to tackle social problems on their own. Each chapter includes objectives and key points, as well as case studies and activities where appropriate, and the topics discussed include:wha...

This book provides university teachers, leaders and policymakers with evidence on how researchers in several countries are monitoring and improving student engagement—the extent to which students are exposed to and participate in effective educational practices. It captures insights from international implementations of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), developed in the United States. In the last half decade NSSE has been adapted and used in several other countries, produci...

This textbook gives a wide-ranging, research-informed introduction to issues in lifelong learning across a variety of educational settings and practices. Its very accessible approach is multi-disciplinary drawing on sociology and psychology in particular. In addition, issues are discussed within an international context. While there has been a proliferation of texts focussing on particular areas of practice such as higher education, there is little in the way of a broad overview.Ch...

′An ideal text for challenging the thinking of those studying for NPQH… The conclusion by the authors suggests nine major points to consider if improvement for schools in extremely challenging circumstances is to happen and be sustained. These ′nine lesson for policy makers′ are very frank and pertinent points, let′s hope at least some of our policy makers read them!′ - ESCalate′Rarely does a book on education reform capture both the big and the small picture with such brilliant cl...