1st Edition

Democratic Learning The Challenge to School Effectiveness

Edited By John MacBeath, Lejf Moos Copyright 2004
    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    212 Pages
    by Routledge

    The time has come to challenge many of the age-old assumptions about schools and school learning. In this timely book leading thinkers from around the world offer a different vision of what schools are for. They suggest new ways of thinking about citizenship, lifelong learning and the role of schools in democratic societies. They question many of the tenets of school effectiveness studies which have been so influential in shaping policy, but are essentially backward looking and premised on school structures as we have known them. Each chapter confronts some of the myths of schooling we have cherished for too long and asks us to think again and to do schools differently. Chapters include:
    * Democratic learning and school effectiveness
    * Learning democracy in an age of mangerial accountability
    * Democratic leadership for school improvement in challenging contexts.
    This book will be of particular interest to anyone involved in school improvement and effectiveness, including academics and researchers in this field of study. Headteachers and LEA advisers will also find this book a useful resource.

    Introduction 1. Democratic Learning and Schools Effectiveness: Are They By Any Chance Related? 2. Reforming for Democratic Schooling: Learning For the Future Not Yearning For the Past 3. Democratic Values, Democratic Schools: Reflections in an International Context 4. Learning Democracy by Sharing Power: The Student Role in Effectiveness and Improvement 5. Children's Participation in a Democratic Learning Environment 6. The Darker Side of Democracy: A Visual Approach to Democratising Teaching and Learning 7. Democratic Leadership in an Age of Managerial Accountability 8. Democratic Leadership for School Improvement in Challenging Contexts 9. Learning in Knowledge Society: The Democratic Dimension

    Biography

    John Macbeath OBE is the Chair of Educational Leadership at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Wallenberg Centre and Leadership for Learning: the Cambridge Network.
    Lejf Moos is Associate Professor and Director of the Research Programme on Professional Development and Leadership at the Danish University of Education, Copehagen. He is also President Elect of the International Congress on School Effectiveness and Improvement.

    'This book is a refreshing read ... [It] should prove to be extremely valuable to scholars examining the role and objectives of education in a variety of democratic settings, and it could also be dipped into with interest by some practitioners. Both categories of reader should find it a rich source of useful information and important ideas.' - Jan Newton, Learning for Democracy