Education Policy Research Design and Practice at a time of Rapid Reform

by Gunter, Helen M.; Hall, David; Mills, Colin

• ISBN13: 9781472514394
• ISBN10: 1472514394
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-12-18
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

In Education Policy Research, Helen M. Gunter, David Hall and Colin Mills bring together contributions from a range of researchers, academics and practitioners. Each chapter draws on critical theoretical perspectives and showcases innovative research projects within educational settings to understand the current changes in schools, schooling and education, to explore critical questions. The varied accounts demonstrate the importance of partnerships between schools and higher education, and of putting educational research into context, specifically charting the ways in which schools and schooling have been reformed through government interventions.

Education Policy Research presents new research findings on the realities of how educational practice can be understood and explained, so enabling researchers to take a reflexive stance towards their own work. The editors and contributors take seriously the need to rethink their data and consider the contribution of research dispositions and practices to ongoing change and development. At the same time, the chapters give recognition to what research and researchers can and cannot do, contributing to the ongoing debates about the value of - and the urgent ongoing need for - social science research.

Author Biography

Helen M. Gunter is Professor of Educational Policy, Leadership and Management at the University of Manchester, UK.

Dave Hall is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the School of Education, University of Manchester, UK.

Colin Mills is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the School of Education at the University of Manchester, UK.

Table of Contents

Preface, Michael Apple
Introduction: Working Towards Critical Social Explanation, Helen M. Gunter, Dave Hall and Colin Mills

Part I: Researchers as Outsiders: Finding "alternative ways of knowing"?
1. Managing Schools as Business Units: The Changing Role School Business Managers, Paul Armstrong Research Officer (Institute of Education, University of London, UK)
2. Promoting Children's Well Being: Policy and Practice, Rhetoric and Reality, Carl Emery (Manchester University, UK)
3. Getting into University: Fairness and Merit in UK Higher Education Admissions Policy, Steve Jones Senior Lecturer in Education (University of Manchester, UK)
4. Interchapter: Drawing Out Themes and Issues, Helen M. Gunter, Dave Hall and Colin Mills

Part II: Researchers Who Work Within: The Challenge of Thinking with Theory?
5. Leading Primary Schools: Adopting and Shaping Practice for a Changing Climate, Maureen Cain (University of Manchester, UK)
6. Teachers Studying for Masters Degrees: Handling Tensions in the Policy-practice Interface, Cate Goodlad Programme Director of MA Education (Teach First Leadership) (University of Manchester, UK) and John Hull Lecturer (University of Manchester, UK)
7. Hearing the Voices of Students: Teacher and Student Agency in Secondary Schools, Stephen Rogers Doctoral Researcher (University of Manchester, UK)
8. Interchapter: Drawing Out Themes and Issues, Helen M. Gunter, Dave Hall and Colin Mills

Part III: Researching Within: The Challenges of Critical Social Explanation?
9. Student Action Research: Policy Enactment in a Time of Rapid Educational Reform, Patricia M. Davies (Manchester University, UK)
10. Embedded Research: Contextualising Collaboration and Leadership, James Duggan (University of Manchester, UK)
11. School-university Research Partnerships: Knowledge Production and the Impact of Rapid Reform, Ruth McGinity (University of Manchester, UK)
12. Navigating Research Partnerships: From Promising Starts to Contested Reform and Attacks on State Education, Harriet Rowley (University of Manchester, UK)
13. School-university Partnerships: Reflections from the Journey to Critical Friendship, Maija Salokangas Doctoral Researcher (Manchester/Manchester Academy, UK), Mel Ainscow Professor of Education and co-director of the Centre for Equity in Education (University of Manchester, UK), Kathy August, Chris Chapman Professor of Education (University of Manchester, UK), and Jenny Langley Senior Leader (School, UK)
14. Inter-Chapter: Drawing out Themes and Issues, Helen M. Gunter, Dave Hall and Colin Mills

Conclusion: Thinking with Theory at a Time of Rapid Reform, Helen M. Gunter, Dave Hall and Colin Mills
Index