William T. Pink – författare

This volume is a series of studies of schooling in its social context. The intent is to reframe the policy debate of the 1980s by examining schooling from this viewpoint. The first section focuses on becoming and being a teacher. The second section focuses on the school and the district, and the implementation of change. The third part attempts to establish how effectiveness is defined and operationalized in practice. The final section concerns the transition to adulthood and explores the ways young workers learn on the job.

Any conception of staff development emerges from an understanding of teaching, schooling, and education. The way people define and think about staff development will be influenced inevitably by their philosophy of education: their values, beliefs, and their taken-forgranted assumptions about what is and what ought to be. Clearly, education theories, interpretations of research, and experiential considerations impinge on educators' ideas and actions. Thus, these three broad frameworks must be illuminated in order to examine staff development. This work explores these three major sources of conceptions of staff development: theory, research, and analytical reflection of educators' experiences. It offers fresh insights into teaching and schools as well as a broader and more powerful conception of staff development.

It is evident that urban education has become the central focus of educators at the present time. In the U.S., for example, almost one third of all school age children attend schools in large urban school districts. It is in these urban schools where the diversity of cultures and languages is highest and where student learning is most problematic. What has emerged from recent work to improve urban schools is the insight that there is no one-size-fits-all panacea. Rather, we have discovered that the local context shapes, in critically important ways, what will be effective at the school level. The universality of the problematics with urban education, together with the importance of understanding the local, or situated, context of improvement interventions, brings into sharp focus the importance and timeliness of an undertaking like the International Handbook of Urban Education. An important focus of the International Handbook of Urban Education will be the interrogation of both the social and political factors that lead to different problem posing and subsequent solutions within each region. An important question to be answered, for example, is what it takes in terms of resources, political will and policy actions to improve urban education.

The good news is that information is back in vogue, especially the education of students of colour attending schools in metropolitan areas. The bad news is that there remains little consensus about how best to improve the education of these students marginalised by the current theory and practice of schooling.It is evident that the current practice of schooling is failing to provide those traditionally marginalised with opportunities to succeed when compared with their more privileged peers. This suggests that we need to rethink out theorising about the practice of education. Unless we do this intellectual work, the very foundations of democracy will be compromised. The importance of this book, which takes as international perspective, is that it contributes to framing this urgently needed intellectual work by interrogating a range of schooling experiences designed to assist marginalised students experience success rather than failure in school.

The good news is that information is back in vogue, especially the education of students of colour attending schools in metropolitan areas. The bad news is that there remains little consensus about how best to improve the education of these students marginalised by the current theory and practice of schooling.It is evident that the current practice of schooling is failing to provide those traditionally marginalised with opportunities to succeed when compared with their more privileged peers. This suggests that we need to rethink out theorising about the practice of education. Unless we do this intellectual work, the very foundations of democracy will be compromised. The importance of this book, which takes as international perspective, is that it contributes to framing this urgently needed intellectual work by interrogating a range of schooling experiences designed to assist marginalised students experience success rather than failure in school.

This volume will introduce the readers to an alternative nexus of education, equity and economy, pointing to economies and educations that promote a less stratified and exploitive world, and as the chapter authors demonstrate, this view has a wide range of applications, from technology, mathematics, to environmental catastrophes and indigenous cultures.This first volume in the new book series not only introduces the series itself, but also several authors whose chapters that appear here presage the in-depth analysis that will be offered by their volumes in the series.Education is invoked repeatedly in the ‘class warfare’ that pits the population against the elites as the investment that makes the difference, in terms of both policy and individual commitment, in the economy. The economy in this scenario is competitive, accumulative, exploitive and stratifying, implying education should mirror this and prepare people to fit this economy. However, educationhas other historic goals of developing common cultures, national identities, and civic engagement that belie this form of economic determinism. This volume and the series will explore this new nexus of economy and education with equity.

This volume will introduce the readers to an alternative nexus of education, equity and economy, pointing to economies and educations that promote a less stratified and exploitive world, and as the chapter authors demonstrate, this view has a wide range of applications, from technology, mathematics, to environmental catastrophes and indigenous cultures.This first volume in the new book series not only introduces the series itself, but also several authors whose chapters that appear here presage the in-depth analysis that will be offered by their volumes in the series.Education is invoked repeatedly in the ‘class warfare’ that pits the population against the elites as the investment that makes the difference, in terms of both policy and individual commitment, in the economy. The economy in this scenario is competitive, accumulative, exploitive and stratifying, implying education should mirror this and prepare people to fit this economy. However, educationhas other historic goals of developing common cultures, national identities, and civic engagement that belie this form of economic determinism. This volume and the series will explore this new nexus of economy and education with equity.

This second handbook offers all new content in which readers will find a thoughtful and measured interrogation of significant contemporary thinking and practice in urban education. Each chapter reflects contemporary cutting-edge issues in urban education as defined by their local context. One important theme that runs throughout this handbook is how urban is defined, and under what conditions the marginalized are served by the schools they attend. Schooling continues to hold a special place both as a means to achieve social mobility and as a mechanism for supporting the economy of nations. This second handbook focuses on factors such as social stratification, segmentation, segregation, racialization, urbanization, class formation and maintenance, and patriarchy. The central concern is to explore how equity plays out for those traditionally marginalized in urban schools in different locations around the globe. Researchers will find an analysis framework that will make the current practice and outcomes of urban education, and their alternatives, more transparent, and in turn this will lead to solutions that can help improve the life-options for students historically underserved by urban schools.