John Halliday – författare

Originally published in 1990. This book is concerned with the logic of the relationship between educational theory and practice. It is a fundamental examination of three ideas: Vocationalism - the idea that the central purpose of education is to prepare people for work. Managerialism - the idea that this preparation can be managed by those not intimately concerned with the practice of teaching. Consumerism - the idea that education should be led by the demands of the ‘market’. Halliday argues that promoters of these ideas share a mistaken belief in the value of pursuing a supposed ideal of objective precision in education. He traces the theoretical origins of this ideal and its practical consequences. In particular, he argues that educational development is likely to remain ossified within a particular theoretical framework, unless competing developments are allowed to flourish alongside one another. He concludes by outlining the ways in which this competition might be managed.

Originally published in 1990. This book is concerned with the logic of the relationship between educational theory and practice. It is a fundamental examination of three ideas: Vocationalism - the idea that the central purpose of education is to prepare people for work. Managerialism - the idea that this preparation can be managed by those not intimately concerned with the practice of teaching. Consumerism - the idea that education should be led by the demands of the ‘market’. Halliday argues that promoters of these ideas share a mistaken belief in the value of pursuing a supposed ideal of objective precision in education. He traces the theoretical origins of this ideal and its practical consequences. In particular, he argues that educational development is likely to remain ossified within a particular theoretical framework, unless competing developments are allowed to flourish alongside one another. He concludes by outlining the ways in which this competition might be managed.

For too long, theories and practices of learning have been dominated by the requirements of formal learning. Quite simply this book seeks to persuade readers through philosophical argument and empirically grounded examples that the balance should be shifted back towards the informal. These arguments and examples are taken from informal learning in very diverse situations, such as in leisure activities, as a preparation for and as part of work, and as a means of surviving undesirable circumstances like dead-end jobs and incarceration. Informal learning can be fruitfully thought of as developing the capacity to make context sensitive judgments during ongoing practical involvements of a variety of kinds. Such involvements are necessarily indeterminate and opportunistic. Hence there is a major challenge to policy makers in shifting the balance towards informal learning without destroying the very things that are desirable about informal learning and indeed learning in general. The book has implications therefore for formal learning too and the way that teaching might proceed within formally constituted educational institutions such as schools and colleges.

For too long, theories and practices of learning have been dominated by the requirements of formal learning. Quite simply this book seeks to persuade readers through philosophical argument and empirically grounded examples that the balance should be shifted back towards the informal. These arguments and examples are taken from informal learning in very diverse situations, such as in leisure activities, as a preparation for and as part of work, and as a means of surviving undesirable circumstances like dead-end jobs and incarceration. Informal learning can be fruitfully thought of as developing the capacity to make context sensitive judgments during ongoing practical involvements of a variety of kinds. Such involvements are necessarily indeterminate and opportunistic. Hence there is a major challenge to policy makers in shifting the balance towards informal learning without destroying the very things that are desirable about informal learning and indeed learning in general. The book has implications therefore for formal learning too and the way that teaching might proceed within formally constituted educational institutions such as schools and colleges.

Macy grew up unwanted, unloved, and alone. By his teens he had quit school and begun stealing. In and out of juvie, Macy is a shoplifter, a car thief, and, by age eighteen, a murderer.Danny grew up physically disabled, raised by his grandmother, and a loner. Now sixteen, he finds solace in taking photographs, particularly of monarch butterflies, and thinking about Leah, the most beautiful girl in town.It is Leah who unwittingly causes these two very different boys, who share some startling similarities, to meet in a first and final terrifying encounter.The outcome of this hard-hitting and spellbinding novel from an exciting new author will rivet readers and leave them thinking about nature, nurture, justice, and the remarkable power of human kindness.

Gathering poems from Shakespeare to the present, Don't Bring Me No Rocking Chair addresses ageing through the several ages of poetry. Now more than ever, as more of us live for longer, the idea of what it means to age or to grow old engages and concerns people of all ages. One of the problems of ageing is the language we use to define it and the list of pejoratives associated with it, with attitudes to ageing ranging from 'fatalism, denial, negative stereotyping and tunnel vision to fantasy' (Professor Tom Kirkwood, Newcastle University). Poetry can help to give us a fresh language to think about ageing and these poems are chosen to fortify, celebrate, lament, grieve, rage and ridicule. There is not one way to age but neither can any of us truly stop our bodies from ageing. Ageing is not a single phenomenon but complex, multiple, perplexing: experienced historically as well as individually. This anthology may not console but it can widen our perspectives, helping us to change what we can change: our attitudes. This anthology was prepared for the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts as part of the Societal Challenge Theme on Ageing at Newcastle University with support from the Institute of Ageing and Health, Newcastle University, and has a foreword by Joan Bakewell.