An examination of the major classical sociological theories relevant to education and of the rise and decline of the new sociology of education. Author also discusses the vexed questions of equality of opportunity, the relationship between school and society, the growth of educational bureaucracies and the roles of state, church and family in education in Australia since 1949. Includes endnotes, tables and index.

Schools have increasingly been relegated to the control of local communities, even as governments mandate deeper cuts in central funding. This volume assesses the causes and outcomes of this shift in Australia and elsewhere.

Exceptionally Gifted Children is unique. The first edition of this book, published in 1993, introduced 15 remarkable children, some of the most gifted young people ever studied, and traced their path through school, exploring their academic achievements (and in some cases enforced underachievement), their emotional development, their social relationships and their family relationships and upbringing. This new edition reviews these early years but also follows the young people over the subsequent ten years into adulthood. No previous study has traced so closely and so sensitively the intellectual, social and emotional development of highly gifted young people. This 20 year study reveals the ongoing negative academic and social effects of prolonged underachievement and social isolation imposed on gifted children by inappropriate curriculum and class placement and shows clearly the long lasting benefits of thoughtfully planned individual educational programs. The young adults of this study speak out and show how what happened in school has influenced and still influences many aspects of their lives. Miraca Gross provides a clear, practical blueprint for teachers and parents who recognise the special learning needs of gifted children and seek to respond effectively.

Based on research carried out under Labour governments throughout the 1990s in Western Australia, the authors consider the social, political and economic conditions under which policy is formulated, understood and enacted. They look at how the state structure affects the content and nature of policy statements and provide an outline of the history of policy developments and point to future possibilities and probabilities.; Outcomes within funding ceilings, accountability frameworks and national guidelines are but some of the changes referred to. The emergence of competency-based standards in education and training in schools, workplaces and the professions is evident throughout Australia at state level, but the concern is whether issues of education should be played out within the state and outside civil society. The authors argue for the mediation in implementation of policy - rather than a lambasting of policy formulation and implementation.; This text is intended for heads of education departments, PGCE, BEd. MEd. students and researchers interested in education policy and planning. Education policymakers, and educational historians.

The International Handbook of Curriculum Research is the first collection of reports on scholarly developments and school curriculum initiatives worldwide. Thirty-four essays on 28 nations, framed by four introductory chapters, provide a panoromic and, for several nations (on which there are multiple essays), an indepth view of the state of curriculum studies globally. As a whole this comprehensive, precedent-setting volume contributes significantly to the internationalization of curriculum studies and the formation of a worldwide field. Curriculum studies straddles the divide between contemporary social science and the humanities. Research in the field is sometimes quantitative, often qualitative, sometimes arts-based, sometimes informed by humanities fields, such as philosophy, literary theory, and cultural studies. It is influenced as well by social science fields, such as psychology, political and social theory, and by interdisciplinary fields, such as women's and gender studies and post-colonial studies. The use of the term "research" in the title is intended to emphasize, despite its paradigmatic differences, the field's relative unity in the project of understanding-a term that includes both theoretical and practical interests and initiatives. The International Handbook of Curriculum Research will serve usefully as the main text in courses devoted exclusively to internationalization and globalization in curriculum studies, and as a supplemental text in general curriculum courses. For prospective and practicing teachers in the United States and elsewhere, it will contextualize national school reform efforts. As a library, personal, and pedagogical resource, this Handbook is an indispensable volume for curriculum studies scholars and students around the world.

Summarizes developments in multicultural education in forty-two countries from around the world.

The essays that make up this collection examine past, present and future relationships between the private and public dimensions of education. The book offers an analysis of the situation from an international perspective.