School Effectiveness and Improvement Research, Policy and Practice: Challenging the Orthodoxy?

ISBN-13: 9780415698993 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 298 str.

Christopher Chapman

Opis

This book provides a contemporary overview of school effectiveness and improvement. It charts the development theory and research in this area and looks at the contribution made to policy and practice. It also challenges some assumptions that have become ingrained into the theoretical and methodological traditions of the field. By challenging these orthodoxies, it provides a framework that sets a new agenda and repositions the field to meet the emerging challenges of the twenty-first century. It argues that traditional measures of school effectiveness are challenged as systems have attempted to adapt to a complex range of emerging agendas. New theoretical perspectives are required which consider 'education' and a 'broader set of outcomes'. This shift requires a rethink of how effectiveness and improvement have been understood by the field, and a reconstruction by policy makers and practitioners. Attention must be given to promoting equity as well as effectiveness so that one school or student's gain no longer means another's loss. The field must develop new methodologies if inequities are to be challenged and a broader set of outcome measures are to be developed. The two questions guiding this book are:

• How can educational effectiveness and improvement research and practice support the development of a more equitable education service?
• What are the key indicators of educational effectiveness and improvement and what are the new methodologies required to facilitate a shift from 'school' effectiveness and improvement to 'educational' effectiveness and improvement?

This book uses lenses of research, policy and practice to explore these key questions and articulate what such a repositioning may look like and how it may be achieved. It will prove invaluable for teachers, school leaders and anyone involved in policy and educational research.

Spis treści

Introduction  Part 1: Foundations of the Field  1. School Effectiveness Research  2. School Improvement Research & Practice  3. School Effectiveness and School Improvement Theory  4. School Effectiveness and School Improvement Methods  Part 2: School Effectiveness and School Improvement in Practice: Examples from the field  5. The Challenge of Equity  6. Dealing with Division?  7. The Potency of History and Culture  8. The imperative of Improvement  Part 3: Current Developments and Future Directions  9. Placing improvement at the centre of practice  10. Changing times for changing systems  11. Thinking locally acting globally  12. Towards sustainable schooling  13. Daring to think of the future  14. Policy and Practice  Part 4: Meeting the challenge; beyond the orthodoxy  15. Conclusion

O autorze

Christopher Chapman is Professor of Education at the University of Manchester, UK.

Paul Armstrong is a researcher for the Effectiveness and Improvement Research Group at the University of Manchester, UK.

Alma Harris is Professor at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.

Daniel Muijs is Professor of Education at the University of Southampton, UK.

David Reynolds is Professor of Educational Effectiveness at the University of Southampton, UK.

Pam Sammons is Professorial Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College, University of Oxford, UK.