Enhancing learner agency in urban schools is seen as increasingly important in educational policy for narrowing existing attainment gaps. However, notions of learner agency are contested and require conceptual clarity. To help generate such clarity a conceptual synthesis of the field was undertaken that resulted in a mapping framework around three…

The emergence of personalised data technologies such as learning analytics is framed as a solution to manage the needs of higher education student populations that are growing ever more diverse and larger in size. However, the current approach to learning analytics presents tensions between increasing student agency in making learning-related…

The article explores the landscape in higher education in which old binary divisions are officially denied yet have been reinvigorated through mix of conservative and neo-liberal policies. Efforts to resist such pressures can happen at different levels, including, in this case, module design and classroom practice. The rationale for such…

A major factor influencing the potential for schools to address inequalities is the freedom that teachers have to reflect and to act to address those inequalities. This article describes how an education system that emphasises the informal and qualitative can leave greater room for teachers to develop themselves and to focus on the direct task of…

In the context of increasing international mobility in higher education, educators experience multiple challenges in the classroom. In the UK, policy discourses often frame international students as desirable resources. However, international students are frequently problematised as in academic deficit. Cultural reasons are posited for different…

When communities fall into decline, disabled people can find themselves alone and invisible in a society of indifferent individuals. Arendt offers an account of such a time in her discussion of the rise of a society of mass labouring and consuming. Bauman's insights into the fragmentation of life, in which established norms, traditional ties and…

UIL has published a second edition of a collection of case studies of promising literacy programmes that seek to empower women. "Narrowing the Gender Gap: Empowering Women through Literacy Programmes" (originally published in 2013 as "Literacy Programmes with a Focus on Women to Reduce Gender Disparities") responds to the…

This volume contains a collection of selected papers submitted to the 19th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES) held in June 2021. The 19th BCES Conference theme is "New Challenges to Education: Lessons from around the World." The book includes 40 papers written by 66 authors from 15…

Parental involvement and participation, partnership with parents, and community-focused development are important features of government initiatives such as the Sure Start project for children under four years of age and their families. A common feature of the rhetoric is "empowerment" as a means of achieving this. This article describes…

This book is the third book in a series which comprise "14-19 Strategic Planning: A Practical Handbook for Schools, Colleges and their Partners". The first two books were "Broadening the 14-19 Curriculum" and "Developments in 14-19 Teaching and Learning". The main purpose of series is to present a summary for managers…

Some of the leading players in adult learning and a few regular contributors of "Adults Learning" were asked about what they would like to see on the agendas of ministers in the new Government. This article shares and presents the thoughts of these players in adult learning. These include: (1) "Sounds like lifelong learning" by…

This learning pack explains the rights guaranteed to students with learning difficulties in the Charter for Learning, which was written by and for students in the United Kingdom. The learning pack, which is intended for learning-disabled students and the staff who work with them, begins with an overview of the content of the Charter for Learning…