This volume brings together leading scholars in urban education to focus on inner city matters, specifically as they relate to educational research, theory, policy, and practice. Each chapter provides perspectives on the history and evolving nature of urban education, the current education landscape, and helps chart an all-important direction for future work and needs. The Handbook addresses seven areas that capture the breadth and depth of available knowledge in urban education: (1) Psychology, Health and Human Development, (2) Sociological Perspectives, (3) Families and Communities, (4) Teacher Education and Special Education, (5) Leadership, Administration and Leaders, (6) Curriculum & Instruction, and (7) Policy and Reform.

Changing Urban Education considers the way we approach teaching and learning in the urban context and examines the debates concerning developments in wider social, cultural, political and economic contexts. Grounded in a strong conceptual, theoretical framework, this accessible text will guide the reader through this evolving area. Reflective exercises, interviews, chapter summaries and useful websites will encourage and support student learning and the application of new concepts. Recent debates and developments are considered, including: * The city as a social, cultural and economic resource * Virtual communities * The impact of the forces of globalisation on urban education * Challenging schools and urban policy * Mobile urban learning Changing Urban Education is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students on education studies and related courses.

In urban education, “urban” is a floating signifier that is imbued with meaning, positive or negative by its users. “Urban” can be used to refer to both the geographical context of a city and a sense of “less than,” most often in relation to race and/or socioeconomic status (Watson, 2011). For Noblit and Pink (2007), “Urban, rather, is a generalization as much about geography as it is about the idea that urban centers have problems: problems of too many people, too much poverty, too much crime and violence, and ultimately, too little hope” (p. xv). Recently, urban education scholars such as Anyon (2005), Pink and Noblit (2007), Blanchett, Klinger and Harry (2009), and Lipman (2013) have elucidated the social construction of oppression and privilege for urban students, teachers, schools, families, and communities using intersectionality theories. Building on their work, we see the need for an edited collection that would look across the different realms of urban education—theorizing identity markers in urban education, education in urban schools and communities, thinking intersectionally in teacher education & higher education, educational policies & urban spaces—seeking to better understand each topic using an intersectional lens. Such a collection might serve to conceptually frame or provide methodological tools, or act as a reference point for scholars and educators who are trying to address urban educational issues in light of identities and power. Secondly, we argue that education questions and/or problems beg to be conceptualized and analyzed through more than one identity axis. Policies and practices that do not take into account urban students’ intertwining identity markers risk reproducing patterns of privilege and oppression, perpetuating stereotypes, and failing at the task we care most deeply about: supporting all students’ learning across a holistic range of academic, personal, and justice-oriented outcomes. Can educational policies and practices address the social justice issues faced in urban schools and communities today? We argue that doing intersectional research and implementing educational policies and practices guided by these frameworks can help improve the “fit.” Particular attention needs to be paid to intersectionality as a lens for educational theory, policy, and practice. As urban educators we would be wise to consider the intertwining of these identity axes in order to better analyze educational issues and engage in teaching, learning, research, and policymaking that are better-tuned to the needs of diverse students, families, and communities.

Presents a sociological perspective on the issues involved in transforming the structure of inner city schools. This book evaluates the models which have guided past and present attempts at educational reform, and proposes a coherent theory for attacking the problems of urban education. Dr. Janowitz examines the inner city school as a social system—the physical structure, community setting, people involved, and persistent patterns of behavior. He analyzes the current trend of specialization teaching and recommends instead an "aggregation" model which increases the scope of the individual teacher and restructures the climate of the school.

This authoritative handbook examines the community, district, and teacher leadership roles that affect urban schools. It will serve as a foundation for pedagogical and educational leadership practices that foster social justice, equity, and advocacy for those who have been traditionally and historically underserved in education. The handbook’s ten sections cover topics as diverse as curriculum, instruction, and educational outcomes; gender, race, and class; higher education; and leadership preparation and support. Its twenty-nine chapters offer both American and international perspectives.

An indispensable book for administrators, policymakers, scholars, and practitioners, Urban School Reform presents a revealing portrait of reform efforts while identifying the full range of issues that education reformers will need to address in districts across the country in the years ahead. Today's urban school reformers face a bewildering array of challenges. Urgent problems pertaining to governance, management, labor relations, classroom instruction, and numerous other areas face those who wish to reform and improve urban schools. Having undergone one of the nation's most comprehensive school reform efforts in recent years, San Diego has been a site of nationwide interest--one that is uncommonly well suited to learning about the challenges facing all reformers. This timely book addresses the full range of critical issues pertaining to urban school reform by looking closely at the recent reform efforts in San Diego. In essays by an impressive gathering of scholars and practitioners from across the country, the book considers crucial dimensions of reform efforts in the San Diego schools, including performance, governance, the external environment, central leadership and management, district infrastructure, support services, and school-level instructional efforts. The result is a full-scale assessment of San Diego's reform efforts--a record of unmistakable relevance and value to other urban reform movements throughout the United States.

The author takes a long look at what goes on in schools, and the roles played by people specifically concerned with them: but finally the problems of the school are seen as indissolubly bound up with the changes that have overtaken urban life. The school cannot be isolated, teachers, administrators, planners and parents must actively co-operate in making the school work in society and a society which works for the school. Nothing other than such a total vision, he concludes, will enable us to achieve normal educational goals. Robert Thornbury writes out of fifteen years experience of the urban school and of the problems not only of Britain but also those sometime similar, often more acute, of other countries, in particular the United States and Australia. The need for a total urban strategy is worldwide. His point of view is broad-based but his sympathies lie most of all with the hard-working teacher who stayed on in the urban classroom. It is a book for teachers therefore, but also, by its own argument, for all concerned with the future of the inner-city and the reordering of education.