Hugh Busher - Böcker

This book shows how school leaders at all levels – from the most senior manager to the classroom teacher – can help to build learning communities through collaborating and negotiating with their colleagues, students and students’ parents and carers, as well as with external agencies and local communities, to sustain and develop the enjoyment of successful learning among the members of a school. It looks at how positive cultures can be constructed that support inclusive and exciting teaching, enthusiastic teachers and engaged students, parents and carers.

Drawing on research, the book examines topics such as the nature of leadership, especially distributed and teacher leadership; the politics of education management; the construction of inclusive cultures in schools; school improvement; and the construction of collaborative and inclusive work groups. It uses a range of critical perspectives to examine processes of change and the relationships of people in school communities to each other and to their social, economic and policy contexts. The book argues that it is essential to develop inclusive education in order to promote student engagement, social justice and equity within formal education.

Understanding Educational Leadership is key reading for teachers, headteachers, school leaders, policy makers, Education students and practitioners, and others who have an interest in improving schooling.

Improving Opportunities to Engage in Learning investigates the experiences of mature adult learners returning to formal education. The book challenges the policy discourses in which Access to Higher Education survives by suggesting that continuing education is more about determination by students to alter their identities and career opportunities than meeting narrow performative criteria of financial targets. Chapters explore students’ struggles with institutional and social structures in the current political and socio-economic climate, before identifying how the transformation of their learner identities is facilitated in the courses by collaborative cultures and supportive tutors.The book addresses a research gap in knowledge about students’ and tutors’ experiences of Access to Higher Education courses, presenting a broad perspective on the importance and difficulties of such courses through listening to the voices of students and tutors undertaking a variety of Access to HE pathways. The authors argue that despite success on their courses benefiting the national economy as well as students individually, the social and financial costs of continuing education is almost entirely shifted onto students’ shoulders by policymakers. Despite the costs, students can still see Access to HE as a chance to improve their lives, reflecting the neoliberal discourse of personal responsibility and risk embedded in broader national social and policy discourses.Improving Opportunities to Engage in Learning will be of great interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of further and higher education, widening participation, social justice and sociology of education, and education policy and politics.

Thinking Critically and Ethically about Research for Education draws on the experiences of a range of researchers in the discipline to explore the lived realities, including ethical and methodological complexities, involved in undertaking educational research.Using global case studies, this book examines the meaning of ethical research practice and raises questions about representation, power and empowerment in the field. It provides critical reflections from researchers, reviewing the methodologies they used in their studies and the ethical implications of these in theory and practice. The book highlights the various difficulties and realities present in education research and provides researchers with the tools necessary for refining their skills and understanding ethical research methodologies.The chapters reflect authors’ responses to the following questions: What values prompted you to do this work and how did you share these with participants? What were the ethical considerations raised beforehand and how were these tackled in terms of meeting obligations (including to ERBs), maximising benefits and dealing with issues arising during the study and through to publication? What does ‘empowerment’ and/or ‘voice’ mean to you as a researcher and how did you express this to your participants? In what ways were the participants given opportunities to be empowered in or through your study?With critical discussions on ethics and research practices in education research, this book is ideal for student, novice and experienced researchers looking to undertake ethical education research.

Thinking Critically and Ethically about Research for Education draws on the experiences of a range of researchers in the discipline to explore the lived realities, including ethical and methodological complexities, involved in undertaking educational research.Using global case studies, this book examines the meaning of ethical research practice and raises questions about representation, power and empowerment in the field. It provides critical reflections from researchers, reviewing the methodologies they used in their studies and the ethical implications of these in theory and practice. The book highlights the various difficulties and realities present in education research and provides researchers with the tools necessary for refining their skills and understanding ethical research methodologies.The chapters reflect authors’ responses to the following questions: What values prompted you to do this work and how did you share these with participants? What were the ethical considerations raised beforehand and how were these tackled in terms of meeting obligations (including to ERBs), maximising benefits and dealing with issues arising during the study and through to publication? What does ‘empowerment’ and/or ‘voice’ mean to you as a researcher and how did you express this to your participants? In what ways were the participants given opportunities to be empowered in or through your study?With critical discussions on ethics and research practices in education research, this book is ideal for student, novice and experienced researchers looking to undertake ethical education research.

This text examines the challenges facing education managers as the introduction of the National Curriculum, a number of Education Acts and the reorganization of management, have altered the concepts of teacher professionality and their statutory duties.

Curriculum and subject leadership in schools has recently gained substantial attention from both researchers and policy-makers. The Teacher Training Agency (TTA) has reinforced the importance of subject leadership in school improvement, proposing a new measure of such leadership competence through the creation of national subject leader standards (NPQSL).

Subject Leadership and School Improvement reflects critically on the work of subject and curriculum leaders especially in schools in England and Wales, that is, those within the policy framework of The National Curriculum and the Teacher Training Agency. The book debates the functions of subject leaders in primary and secondary schools, using current research-based conceptual frameworks, and considers how they can bring about improvement and change with their colleagues in their subject areas. It emphasizes what is particular about leading and managing the middle realm of education organizations, showing how structural, cultural and individual imperatives and perspectives interact with each other in the professional practice of being a subject leader.

The book is of interest not only to subject leaders and curriculum co-ordinators, to help them reflect rigorously on their practice, but also to those responsible for supervising them, such as headteachers and school governors, as well as for those accountable to them. It will be a useful text for serving teachers undertaking higher degrees programmes or programmes for gaining national standards qualifications, the National Professional Qualification for Headteachers (NPQH) as much as for the NPQSL (National Professional Qualification for Subject Leaders) when it is implemented.

Curriculum and subject leadership in schools has recently gained substantial attention from both researchers and policy-makers. The Teacher Training Agency (TTA) has reinforced the importance of subject leadership in school improvement, proposing a new measure of such leadership competence through the creation of national subject leader standards (NPQSL).

Subject Leadership and School Improvement reflects critically on the work of subject and curriculum leaders especially in schools in England and Wales, that is, those within the policy framework of The National Curriculum and the Teacher Training Agency. The book debates the functions of subject leaders in primary and secondary schools, using current research-based conceptual frameworks, and considers how they can bring about improvement and change with their colleagues in their subject areas. It emphasizes what is particular about leading and managing the middle realm of education organizations, showing how structural, cultural and individual imperatives and perspectives interact with each other in the professional practice of being a subject leader.

The book is of interest not only to subject leaders and curriculum co-ordinators, to help them reflect rigorously on their practice, but also to those responsible for supervising them, such as headteachers and school governors, as well as for those accountable to them. It will be a useful text for serving teachers undertaking higher degrees programmes or programmes for gaining national standards qualifications, the National Professional Qualification for Headteachers (NPQH) as much as for the NPQSL (National Professional Qualification for Subject Leaders) when it is implemented.

This text examines the challenges facing education managers as the introduction of the National Curriculum, a number of Education Acts and the reorganization of management, have altered the concepts of teacher professionality and their statutory duties.

Providing theoretical grounding, case studies and practical solutions, Implementing Ethics in Educational Ethnography examines how researchers can overcome ethical dilemmas associated with and encountered during ethnographic research. From the initial stages of research design such as consideration from regulatory bodies, through research occurring in the field to project completion and reporting, it explores many of the factors associated with ensuring culturally sensitive and ethical studies.The book covers key questions including:What can researchers expect of ethical review boards?Where and with whom should dialogue take place about ethicality within research?What effect does a research focus have on regulation and research practice?What is the effect of context on ethical practices?Does the positionality of a researcher have an effect on ethical practices?How do we ensure that ethicality supports the trustworthiness of research projects?Using a range of international case studies, Implementing Ethics in Educational Ethnography provides researchers and students with invaluable details about how to navigate the field, ensuring that they can sustain good ethical practice throughout the life of a research project.Chapters 4 and 6 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Providing theoretical grounding, case studies and practical solutions, Implementing Ethics in Educational Ethnography examines how researchers can overcome ethical dilemmas associated with and encountered during ethnographic research. From the initial stages of research design such as consideration from regulatory bodies, through research occurring in the field to project completion and reporting, it explores many of the factors associated with ensuring culturally sensitive and ethical studies.The book covers key questions including:What can researchers expect of ethical review boards?Where and with whom should dialogue take place about ethicality within research?What effect does a research focus have on regulation and research practice?What is the effect of context on ethical practices?Does the positionality of a researcher have an effect on ethical practices?How do we ensure that ethicality supports the trustworthiness of research projects?Using a range of international case studies, Implementing Ethics in Educational Ethnography provides researchers and students with invaluable details about how to navigate the field, ensuring that they can sustain good ethical practice throughout the life of a research project.Chapters 4 and 6 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Improving Opportunities to Engage in Learning investigates the experiences of mature adult learners returning to formal education. The book challenges the policy discourses in which Access to Higher Education survives by suggesting that continuing education is more about determination by students to alter their identities and career opportunities than meeting narrow performative criteria of financial targets. Chapters explore students’ struggles with institutional and social structures in the current political and socio-economic climate, before identifying how the transformation of their learner identities is facilitated in the courses by collaborative cultures and supportive tutors.The book addresses a research gap in knowledge about students’ and tutors’ experiences of Access to Higher Education courses, presenting a broad perspective on the importance and difficulties of such courses through listening to the voices of students and tutors undertaking a variety of Access to HE pathways. The authors argue that despite success on their courses benefiting the national economy as well as students individually, the social and financial costs of continuing education is almost entirely shifted onto students’ shoulders by policymakers. Despite the costs, students can still see Access to HE as a chance to improve their lives, reflecting the neoliberal discourse of personal responsibility and risk embedded in broader national social and policy discourses.Improving Opportunities to Engage in Learning will be of great interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of further and higher education, widening participation, social justice and sociology of education, and education policy and politics.

Online Interviewing is a short, accessible and highly practical introduction to designing and conducting online interviews in qualitative research.

James and Busher focus on helping the reader to understand the methodological and epistemological challenges of carrying out online interviews in the virtual environment. They highlight the many new ethical issues that face researchers in this medium. The authors also encourage an engagement with the critical theoretical issues that must be considered in the conduct of online interviews. The resulting book is a well-reasoned introduction to the challenges and opportunities offered by online interviewing, drawing on a wide range of international sources to support these discussions.

This is an ideal first introduction for anyone who is interested in using online methods, and who has an interest in the theory of the method. It will be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate level students in the social sciences, and for professional researchers.