1st Edition

The Primary School in Changing Times The Australian Experience

Edited By Tony Townsend Copyright 1999
    284 Pages
    by Routledge

    288 Pages
    by Routledge

    Following substantial changes throughout the Australian education system, primary schools are no longer in the protected position of having a regulated flow of clients, a pre-determined curriculum and marginal levels of staff development.
    Recent moves have brought new or increased responsibilities for all schools in areas such as:
    *curriculum and policy development
    *staff development
    *monitoring and assessment
    *the use of new technologies
    *resource allocation
    This book seeks to review the impact of this change on Australian primary schools, on the people who are involved with them and the issues they face. Primary education is being re-structured throughout the world, and therefore these issues are of great interest and relevance to educators worldwide.

    Preface: changing times, changing ways PART I Introduction 1 ‘Enterprise’: the new metaphor for schooling in a post-industrial society PART II People in the primary school 2 Synchronicity and the heroic quest: the primary principal in an era of dramatic change 3 Teachers, training and development 4 Different families: new issues for schools PART III Critical issues for the restructured primary school 5 The early years of schooling 6 Building a school culture 7 Curriculum development in the restructured school 8 Assessment in primary schools 9 The impact of computer technology on primary education 10 Effective resource allocation in the primary school 11 The education market: the view from the school PART IV Afterword 12 The primary school of the future: third world or third millennium?

    Biography

    Tony Townsend is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and, from 1988 to 1997, the Director of the South Pacific Centre for School and Community Development at Monash University in Melbourne. He has brought the research interests of community education and school effectiveness together in his work for the International Community Education Association (where he was the elected Director of the Pacific Region between 1987 and 1996) and the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) (where he serves on the editorial board of the journal School Effectiveness and School Improvement and was conference manager for ICSEI’s 1994 conference in Melbourne).