Using evidence from a series of studies carried out over 20 years, this article explores ways of developing schools that are effective for all children and young people. The argument developed is intended to challenge those leading school improvement to return to their historical purpose, that of ensuring a sound education for every child. The authors argue that in order to achieve this it is necessary to complement within-school developments with efforts that link schools with one another and with their wider communities. This means that school improvement processes have to be nested within locally led efforts to make school systems more equitable and to link the work of schools with area strategies for tackling wider inequities and, ultimately, with national policies aimed at creating a fairer society. This article considers the implications of this analysis for the work of senior staff at all levels of the education system.
Drawing on evidence gathered as a result of collaborative action research carried out in eight secondary schools in three European countries, this paper proposes an innovative strategy for helping teachers respond positively to learner diversity. The strategy merges the idea of lesson study with an emphasis on listening to the views of students. The research suggests that it is this latter emphasis that makes the difference as far as responding to learner diversity is concerned. It is this that brings a critical edge to the process that has the potential to challenge teachers to go beyond the sharing of existing practices in order to invent new possibilities for engaging students in their lessons. The paper also considers some of the difficulties involved in using this strategy.
In this study we undertook to look at leadership issues specifically in relation to social inclusion, through a series of six case studies in three districts showing high levels of disadvantage. Findings indicated that schools' views on social inclusion could be typified as leaning towards three main orientations: (1) improving achievement and qualifications for all; (2) overcoming barriers to learning existing within particular groups; (3) enhancing other capacities and skills of children from disadvantaged groups. These views are strongly shaped by the vision and biography of school heads, interacting with different pressures and contexts.
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