Liz Jones – författare

"Make something new, Derrida says, that is how deconstruction happens. This book exemplifies such a move in the way it addresses the stuck places of practitioner oriented research with its rational, intentional agents seeking to empower both teacher self and students. An example of putting postmodernism to work in educational research, the book asks hard questions about necessary complicities...rounded in nursery teaching and math education, it attempts to develop a better language toward a more complicated understanding of what knowledge means...without reverting to the quick and narrow scientism of the past." Patti Lather, Ohio State University How can we move forward from or develop traditional approaches to Action Research which have dominated teacher research for many years now? How can teachers work at improving their teaching when there are so many different understandings of what education is trying to achieve? In which ways can post-structuralism, which has had such a major impact in other disciplines, offer practical support to teachers developing their own professional practices?A premise of much teacher research is that reflection on practice can lead to a development of that practice. Such reflection, it is purported, enables the practitioner in organising the complexity of the teaching situation, with a particular emphasis on how 'monitoring of change' can be converted to 'control of change'. This book questions the notion of construing developing practice as 'aiming for an ideal' and suggests that such a pursuit has a questionable track record. The very desire for control, and the difficulties encountered in trying to document it can cloud our vision from the very complexities we seek to capture. The book offers detailed discussion of teacher research enquiries carried out in the context of masters and doctoral degrees. It focuses in particular on how the reflective writing generated by the teacher might build towards an assertion of professional identity through which professional demands are mediated.

This fascinating book illustrates the complex relationship between gender and research. The authors use concrete examples and draw upon their own gendered experiences by including mini-case studies from research projects in areas such as childhood studies, health care and education.

The first biography of the bestselling author and journalist Marguerite Jervis takes a closer look at the woman who in her heyday sold hundreds of thousands of novels and wrote the script for Hitchcock's directorial debut.

I will be able to shop in Topshop. I will be able to go swimming and not displace all the water and create a tsunami. I will fit in changing rooms without banging my elbows or exposing the moon of my arse through the curtain when I bend over. I will be able to fit behind the narrow benches at Ronnie Scott's to listen to jazz instead of being offered a chair at the end of the row I'll be able to see my toes, which I haven't seen since 1996 without the aid of a selfie stick. I will be promoted and not have my desk moved to inside the stationery cupboard for being off-brand. "I started writing this book five years ago. I was going through a really hard time - I lost my home and everything I owned - and the only way I got through it was by writing, and making myself laugh. I have always self-medicated with funny books, and wanted to write something that made women who might be miserable or cheated on or broke or feeling woefully unsuccessful feel a little better. The book is rooted in my reality: I always felt my life would start and I'd be happy once I reached my target weight. Then I got thin, and life was still rubbish and I still hated my body. I realised true happiness only comes with self-acceptance. So here it is. And I hope it at least makes you smile. And reach for that doughnut."