14-19 Education

Jacky Lumby (Ph.D. University of Leicester) is Professor of Education and Head of the School of Education at the University of Southampton, UK. She has taught and led in a range of educational settings, including secondary/high schools, community and further/technical education. She has also worked for a Training and Enterprise Council, with a regional responsibility for developing leaders across the public and private sectors. She has researched and published widely on educational policy, leadership and management in schools and colleges, in the UK and internationally. Her work on leadership encompasses a range of perspectives, including diversity issues, comparative and international perspectives and leading upper secondary education. She has co-edited International handbook on the preparation and development of school leaders (2008). Her most recent book is, with Marianne Coleman, Leadership and Diversity: Challenging Theory and Practice in Education (2007). She is co- editor of the journal International Studies in Educational Administration and a member of the Council of the British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society. Nick Foskett - University of Southampton.

′AT LAST, A BOOK ABOUT THIS MOST VEXED PART OF THE CURRICULUM WHICH IS OBJECTIVE, HONEST AND RESEARCH-BASED. These two well-established authors have done what even supposedly neutral writers of official reports have been unable to do and this is because they emerge as having only one ′axe to grind′, namely what is best for the students and the country.Showing only too clearly the confusions and competitions which have bedevilled provision for this age group, THE AUTHORS′ VIEWS ARE CONVINCING AND CREDIBLE PARTLY BECAUSE-UNUSUALLY- THEY COME FROM NEITHER A ′PRO-SCHOOL′ OR A ′PRO-COLLEGE′ LOBBY.( Read , for example, the chapter on leadership to see how leaders in the two sectors-but providing for the same young people ! - can be seen being encouraged to move in different directions.) They rightly argue that this not the point. Although, like others, they argue that partnerships are the way ahead, they show that these so far have a poor record. Their arguments, all firmly based on clear analysis of the politics and resourcing of 14-19 education, and constantly referenced by the experiences of young people of fourteen to nineteen years, are set in a totally realistic perspective and, as they conclude, the price of future failure in this provision will be calamitous.LEADERS IN BOTH THE SCHOOLS AND THE POST-16 SECTORS SHOULD READ THIS BOOK AND REFLECT ON THE WHOLE PICTURE IT OFFERS OF WHAT MIGHT BE POSSIBLE FOR OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. Policy makers should do the same but whether they have the will and courage to act accordingly is a matter for future debate′ - David Middlewood′The reform of the 14-19 stage of education and training in England is likely to be on the policy agenda for the next two decades, but until now our understanding of 14-19 education, like the stage itself, has been incoherent and fragmented. Lumby and Foskett provide a comprehensive, authoritative and readable account of the recent history and current state of 14-19 education. They challenge some of the myths and misconceptions that have grown up around it. I recommend this book to all people with an interest in 14-19 education in England and in the current attempts to reform it′ - Professor David Raffe, Centre for Educational Sociology, University of Edinburgh

• PART ONE: SETTING THE CONTEXT14-19 EducationThe High-Stakes BattlefieldRiding the Waves of PolicyMoving the Pieces aroundStructural Change since 1979PART TWO: A COHERENT LEARNING EXPERIENCE? Curriculum 14-19Parallel Worlds or Brave New World?Mind the GapThe Vocational and Academic DivideTeaching and LearningThe Learner′s PerspectiveTeaching and LearningThe Ritual of AssessmentChoices, Transitions and 14-19 PathwaysPART THREE: LEADING TEACHING AND LEARNINGPaying for LearningResourcing the SystemWorking Together? Collaboration and Partnerships for LearningLeading 14-19 EducationLifting Our HeadsPART FOUR: FUTURESFuture Policy 14-19Choices and Visions