Harry Daniels

Anne Edwards

Tony Gallagher

Yrjo Engeström

Sten R. Ludvigsen

This ground-breaking book brings together cutting-edge researchers who study the transformation of practice through the enhancement and transformation of expertise. This is an important moment for such a contribution because expertise is in transition - moving toward collaboration in inter-organizational fields and continuous shaping of transformations. To understand and master this transition, powerful new conceptual tools are needed and are provided here. The theoretical framework which has shaped these studies is Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). CHAT analyses how people and organisations learn to do something new, and how both individuals and organisations change. The theoretical and methodological tools used have their origins in the work of Lev Vygotsky and A.N. Leont’ev. In recent years this body of work has aroused significant interest across the social sciences, management and communication studies. Working as part of an integrated international team, the authors identify specific findings which are of direct interest to the academic community, such as: the analysis of vertical learning between operational and strategic levels within complex organizations; the refinement of notions of identity and subject position within CHAT; the introduction of the concept of ‘labour power’ into CHAT; the development of a method of analysing discourse which theoretically coheres with CHAT and the design of projects. Activity Theory in Practice will be highly useful to practitioners, researchers, students and policy-makers who are interested in conceptual and empirical issues in all aspects of ‘activity-based’ research.

Promoting Learning Across Boundaries and Agencies

Activity Theory in Practice

Norman Richardson

Much has been written over recent decades about the impact of community conflict on Northern Ireland's children and schools. There have been fewer attempts, however, to record and evaluate the experience of those who have worked to offset the negative impacts of these realities by developing educational programmes which encourage positive responses to diversity and promote mutual awareness, understanding and respect. This book shows how such processes, ideas and pedagogies have developed, evaluates their successes and failures, and proposes what can be learned from this experience for those undertaking similar work elsewhere. Commencing with a broadly-based rationale for Education for Diversity and Mutual Understanding, this book explores developments since the early days of the Northern Ireland 'Troubles' to the present, noting the broader context of community relations over the period. The editors explore some of the pedagogical issues in more detail, including whole-school ethos, creating 'safe space', managing conflict and prejudice, group-work methodologies and teaching controversial issues. In conclusion the book brings the picture up to the present day. It offers further evaluation at a time when Northern Ireland's diversity is taking new directions and presenting schools with a mixture of old and new challenges.

The Experience of Northern Ireland

Education for Diversity and Mutual Understanding

While teaching English as a foreign expert at Peking University, the author grew to understand the lives & views of his students in a most profound way. In this chronicle of his time in China, the author features original essays written by his students for his class, offering keen insight into the minds of China's brightest students. Extremely candid discussions of social issues that include educations, social issues, & the meaning of love, supported by the illuminating observations of a supportive & encouraging teacher, prove that understanding earned in a classroom is not limited to that of the students.

Profiles of Today's Chinese Students

In Their Own Words

Ronaldo Munck

Sjur Bergan

Hilligje van’t Land

A particularly timely book, given the high proportion of international students and staff in higher education Public health was the immediate concern when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in Asia, then in Europe and other parts of the world. The response of our education systems is no less vital. Higher education has played a major role in responding to the pandemic and it must help shape a better, more equitable and just post-Covid-19 world. This book explores the various responses of higher education to the pandemic across Europe and North America, with contributions also from Africa, Asia and South America. The contributors write from the perspective of higher education leaders with institutional responsibility, as well as from that of public authorities or specialists in specific aspects of higher education policy and practice. Some contributions analyse how specific higher education institutions reacted, while others reflect on the impact of Covid-19 on key issues such as internationalisation, finance, academic freedom and institutional autonomy, inclusion and equality and public responsibility. The book describes the various ways in which higher education is facing the Covid-19 pandemic. It is designed to help universities, specifically their staff and students as well as their partners, contribute to a more sustainable and democratic future.

Building a more sustainable and democratic future

Higher education's response to the Covid-19 pandemic

Robert A. Davis

James C. Conroy

David Lundie

Vivienne Baumfield

L. Philip Barnes

Kevin Lowden

Nicole Bourque

Karen J. Wenell

Society for Educational Studies Annual Book Prize winner: 2nd Prize This ground-breaking volume draws upon a rich and variegated range of methodologies to understand more fully the practices, policies and resources available in and to religious education in British schools. The descriptions, explanations and analyses undertaken here draw on an innovative combination of policy work, ethnography, Delphi methods, Actor Network Theory, questionnaires, textual analysis as well as theological and philosophical insight. It traces the evolution of religious education in a post-religious age from the creation of policy to the everyday experiences of teachers and students in the classroom. It begins by analysing the way in which policy has evolved since the 1970s with an examination of the social forces that have shaped curriculum development. It goes on to explore the impact and intentions of a diverse group of stakeholders with sometimes competing accounts of the purposes of religious educations. It then examines the manner in which policy is, or is not, enacted in the classroom. Finally, it explores contradictions and confusions, successes and failures, and the ways in which wider public debates enter the classroom. The book also exposes the challenge religious education teachers have in using the language of religion.

A Multi-dimensional Investigation

Does Religious Education Work?

Tony Gallagher

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