1st Edition

Rebuilding Our Schools from the Bottom Up Listening to Teachers, Children and Parents

By Fiona Carnie Copyright 2018
    204 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    204 Pages 16 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The aim of this book is to explore how teachers, students and parents can be given more of a say in the education system – in how schools are organised, and in what and how children learn. The book does not promote a specific view of education, but considers the means by which educational purposes and approaches can be conceived, agreed and enacted democratically – a precursor to a flourishing democratic society.

    Rebuilding Our Schools from the Bottom Up has been written in response to significant changes which have taken place in the education system over the past 30 years. In England at least, these changes have resulted in an increasingly centralised system in which the voices of those who teach, those who learn, and those whose children go to school have been marginalised.

    The book covers four main areas:

    • Teacher voice: listening to the professionals
    • Student voice: involving students as active participants in their education
    • Parent voice: building a genuine home–school partnership
    • School community voice: developing a shared vision

    With inspiring examples from around the UK and overseas and a range of resources that can be used by senior leaders, teachers and parents, the book aims to encourage and support transformative change so that schools can meet the needs of the communities they exist to serve.

    Introduction

    1. Key research and contemporary debates
    2. Teacher voice: listening to the professionals
    3. Student voice: involving students as active participants
    4. Parent voice: building a genuine home-school partnership
    5. School community voice: developing a shared vision
    6. Lessons from overseas
    7. Strategies and resources to support transformational change

    Looking ahead

    Biography

    Fiona Carnie is an educationalist, parent and writer. She has been involved in encouraging and supporting new initiatives in the alternative and state sectors for many years and has written widely about the need for new educational approaches.

    "Full of practical examples from here and abroad, and a range of resources that can be used by senior leaders, teachers and parents, the book aims to encourage and support transformative change so that schools can meet the needs of the communities they exist to serve. As teacher, parent and educationalist, the author is well positioned to write in a way that appeals to all these groups, bringing us a book that is highly readable for everyone."— Parents in Touch

    "This book offers a plethora of detailed examples of ways and means through which the voices of those customarily marginalised within the education system can be boosted. In the examples of democratic praxis you can hear a story of education as if people mattered. It will be of interest to school leaders looking to widen participation and for those aspiring to lead who would further a vision of participatory democracy for schools rather than the authoritarian model so often lauded by government" - Forum Journal