Effective schools or improving schools are fashionable terms in the rhetoric of recent education movements, yet the heart of these movements is often more to do with teaching quality than with school practice. Even so, these movements often offer little in terms of increased knowledge for teachers' learning or preparation for change. This book takes an holistic view of teacher development, examining the contexts and conditions of teaching: school leadership and culture; teachers' lives and histories; change; teacher learning, competence and expertise; and the moral purposes of teaching. Chris...

This text draws upon practical and theoretical knowledge to explore the role of leadership in primary schools and define the processes involved in helping people to perform well. Professional development, collaboration and self-knowledge are at the centre of the authors' approach.

Chris Day is a fairly ordinary guy from the UK. He enjoys cycling and has undertaken a number of multi-day cycle tours in the UK, and has also had a long standing fascination with the USA. This, coupled with the fact that he was feeling a bit 'stuck in a rut' in his professional life, somehow caused him in 2013 to take the dramatic - some might say crazy - decision to shake up his life in the most drastic way possible by taking a three month sabbatical from his job and cycling solo across the USA from San Diego to Washington DC. During that time he encountered weather from intense heat to...