Martin Buber offers an account of a tendency towards polarisation in responses to the perplexing question of inclusion in education. On the one hand, the educator can be identified as one who includes what is present and becoming within individual young people in isolation from the world. On the other hand, the educator can be recognised as one…

In the final eleven months of its five-year term, the Coalition Government placed much emphasis in the education system on what it called fundamental British values (FBV). The phrase had its origins in counter-terrorism strategies that were of dubious validity both conceptually and operationally, and the trigger for its introduction into the…

Proponents of the transformative potential of the United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) claim that their adoption could lead to a "paradigm change" in business schools, thus addressing many of the sustained critiques of the sector in recent years. However, this claim and the PRME themselves have to date…

Recent changes to policy directives now require newly appointed Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) in UK mainstream schools to be qualified teachers. Training and accreditation through a nationally approved postgraduate award is now mandatory. Concepts drawn from poststructuralist biopolitics and critiques of neoliberal educational…

This article reports on the design and implementation of an alternative form of writing assessment in a UK English for Academic Purposes (EAP) pre-sessional course. The assessment, termed processfolio, was a response to research inquiry into how writing assessment in a local context negated student agency and inculcated disempowering models of…

Active learning is a pedagogical construct widely appealed to within the global discourse of lifelong learning. However, an examination of the literature reveals a lack of clarity and consensus as to its meaning. This article provides a critical analysis of a range of dimensions underpinning the concept of active learning including policy…

The discourse of disengagement has achieved ascendancy just as young people's employment prospects have declined--in many countries to crisis levels. Conceptualising and interpreting young people's non-participation in dominant modes of education, training and employment has been a preoccupation of academics, policymakers and journalists. This…

One notable "disruptive" impact of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has been an increased public discussion of online education. While much debate over the potential and challenges of MOOCs has taken place online confined largely to niche communities of practitioners and advocates, the rise of corporate "xMOOC" ventures such…

This article critically examines the Labour Party's policies for local school systems, focusing on its proposals for regional Directors of School Standards, for academies and free schools, and for local democracy, and offers an alternative approach.

This article reports on the findings of a thematic review of research literature about integrated early years services (IEYS) [1995-2012]. Four themes are discussed: broad support for IEYS; critiques of claims about IEYS; a focus on inter-professional practice; and the challenge of evaluating IEYS. The article concludes with reflections concerning…

This paper investigates how the narratives Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCOs) tell can be framed as social, discursive practices and performances of identity by analysing accounts offered in focus groups and life history interviews. I explore how the narratives deployed demonstrate an engagement with a rhetoric about who works in…

The early days of non-confessional, multi-faith religious education in Britain benefitted from close collaboration between academics in universities, teacher educators and teachers. This article attempts to initiate a revival of such a dialogue, by summarizing some developments in religious studies at university level and suggesting possible…

This paper offers a critique of current definitions of active citizenship and argues that children and young people need to be seen as citizens within their school communities and not just citizens of the future. Pedagogy and school decision-making should reflect the aims of active citizenship and thus engage children and young people as active…

This analysis and synthesis explores constructs of professional autonomy and accountability using constructivist theory and practice to examine the organizational dynamics of centralization/decentralization, particularly as applied to educational organizations. Major schools of constructivist thought are explored to shed light on…

In a recent book chapter, Matthew Thompson makes some criticisms of my work, including the interpretive approach to religious education and the research and activity of Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit. Against the background of a discussion of religious education in the public sphere, my response challenges Thompson's account,…