There is only one place where social education can occur and flourish: through the voices that create a pedagogy of change. And it is these voices where the most exciting and provocative moments can occur for those of us who are passionate about education, teaching, social justice, equity, and love. As such, social education is a journey—an endeavor that makes us savor the experience of the journey more than the destination. And social education is a journey that ins enhanced through educator and student voices because it occurs in the most important spaces of our personal and professional lives. It occurs in the hallways of the schools we teach, in the staff meetings we attend, in the mountain villages we venture to visit, in the places we work, and in the spaces we occupy. Moreover, social education is a unique kind of journey because it is a human experience that seldom occurs alone. It happens with our colleagues and our loved ones. It happens with our students, administrators, and other professionals who are fighting for the same things that we so fervently believe. In the end, social education occurs and flourishes in the trenches because it is the active pursuit of getting our hands dirty in our endless pursuit for a better and more just world. Social education is also a narrative, which takes on a different meaning for each one of us. This is because sooner or later each person that embarks into the journey of social education develops its own personal definition of what social education entails through his or her own personal landscape and knowledge. This personal landscape has been evolving since we were very young with some of the best examples of human courage and tenacity in the fight for social justice. Voices of Social Education: A Pedagogy of Change is a collection of personal stories. In this volume, academics, teachers, students, activists, and artists share their personal stories of triumph, tribulations, and courage in their daily fight for social justice and equality. The term social education is not defined as a set number of guidelines or a specific definition; we give the term an organic fluency to stress that social education is a point of encounter--a common space-- where we can share with each other our experiences, values, and culture to form a more genuine and just social experience.

Social education is quite a journey. Given the ongoing debate and struggle with “defining” social education, the following is at present a “working definition” - "While we resist ‘defining’ social education, we believe that social education emphasizes three areas of study: critical pedagogy, cultural/media studies, and social studies education. We also stress that education, interpreted broadly, has the potential to advance social justice." Thus emerged social education... a lifelong journey for all of us – to question, to challenge, to do, and to create. Connecting present and past, merging current issues with traditional curriculum, integrating alternative texts and perspectives, empowering and emancipating kids and educators, and transforming schools and society – the transgressions of social education scream out. Dewey, Freire, Kincheloe, Zinn, Greene, Giroux, Apple, hooks, McLaren, Kozol, Loewen, Said, Chomsky, even Bob Dylan and many others have provided the impetus. May we make them proud! The essays within this text demonstrate various journeys in social education. They are meant as stories, not maps or scripts. They are intended to serve as a primer of sorts, for those interested in a similar journey. Hopefully, this can be a meaningful experience for many – students, educators, parents, and society as a whole, of course. Well... the journey and struggle continues...

This book celebrates the rights of the child, through including student voice in educational matters that affect them directly. It focuses on the experiences of children and young people and explores how our educational policies, practices and research endeavours enable educators to help young people tell their own stories. The respective chapters illustrate how listening to young people can help them attain new positions of power, even though doing so often creates discomfort and requires a radical change on the part of the adult establishment. Further, the book challenges researchers, teachers and practitioners to reconsider how students are involved in research and policy agendas, and to what extent radical collegiality can create fundamental and positive changes in the lives of these learners. In recent decades, greater attention has been paid across policy, practice and research discourses to involving children more meaningfully and actively in decisions about their participation in both formal and informal educational settings. The book’s goal is to illustrate how researchers have systematically involved students in the pursuit of a richer understanding of educational experiences, policy and practice through the eyes and ears of young people, and through their own cultural lens.

'Leicester operates on the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Her thoughts are so clearly and concisely packaged that her thoughts for an "enabling education" read like an 11th commandment. The simpler thing are, the more obvious, sometimes, the more profoundly they affect us. For instance, it is an abserdly commomsensical notion that one might ask the people who use a service, whether they are satisfied with it or not.That is precisely what Leicester did intereveiwing eighteen adults with disabilities and ten parents of disabled children who are in the education system currently. While the size of her research sample, like the book in which she interprets tjhe findings, is small, she is able to weave from reacurrent narratives of the school experience a message that must be heard by educators and policy makers. Disability voice isa small, but hugely important book, absolutly powerful in it's brevity, highly readable for nonacademics-and slim enough to appeal to busy teachers, principles, and college faculty. In just over 100 pages, then, Leicester summerizes several disability theories, relates them to the education system, and proposes radical change. Next, she recommends many incremental improvementsin which a whole-school policy of inclusion might focus:increased resources, curriculum differntiation, assesments of "social adjustment! as well as academic acheivement, better information and support systems, involving parents as partners in assesment and decition-making, in-service training for teachers and staff, and external help for parents developing advocacy skills. Clear, straight forward, do-able suggestions:Keep It Simple. Leicester makes her point swiftly in brief with neither wasted words nor skimpy evidence... Inclusion benifits all, lets hope that Leicester's slim book inspires heavyweight changes in schools and colleges everywhere.' - Disability Studies Quarterly 'Mal Leicester's book Disability Voice, which highlights the experience of disabled children and adults in the education system, is a timely and important contribution to the moral imperitive set out by the debates on inclusion... I found the book clear, direct and well-argued. The structure allows the reader to follow the themes of the stories but also to 'dip in and out' as required. It is a book that anyone interested in developing education policy that includes the experience of different peoples will find invaluable and challenging.' - Journal of Moral Education 'Her own experiences as the parent of a severely disabled daughter were motivational in writing this book and were a significant factor in her decision to approach the issue of education through the direct experience of disabled people themselves. What follows is a wide ranging and authoratitive book, based on interviews with 30 adults with a variety of disabilities. Each is thoroughly analysed by the author. Disability Voice addresses the rights of those with disabilities and the needs of their carers. The book will be of particular interest and benefit to educational policy makers, teachers, their trainers and people with disabilities and their families.' - Disability Times The best method of including disabled people in mainstream education is the subject of much debate, but the voice of disabled people themselves is seldom heard. Mal Leicester argues that people have been disabled by society, and that there is a need for educational change. The book encourages equal opportunities for disabled people by promoting the practice of enabling education, a 'disability-aware' education that caters for everyone's educational needs. Interviews with disabled people are also included, giving their own recommendations for educators and policy makers. Disability Voice addresses the rights of those with disabilities and the needs of their carers, and will be of interest to educational policy makers, teachers, their trainers, and people with disabilities and their families.

A penetrating exploration of affirmative action's continued place in 21st-century higher education, The Next Twenty-five Years assembles the viewpoints of some of the most influential scholars, educators, university leaders, and public officials. Its comparative essays range the political spectrum and debates in two nations to survey the legal, political, social, economic, and moral dimensions of affirmative action and its role in helping higher education contribute to a just, equitable, and vital society. David L. Featherman is Professor of Sociology and Psychology and Founding Director of the Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society at the University of Michigan. Martin Hall is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Salford, Greater Manchester, and previously was Deputy Vice- Chancellor at the University of Cape Town. Marvin Krislov is President of Oberlin College and previously was Vice President and General Counsel at the University of Michigan.

Society today often fails to hear the wake-up call embedded in the happenings of the world, which, in many ways, are driven by technology and concerns of profit at the cost of human lives, especially the lives of children. It is important to protect children and strengthen their voices, which are often muffled or silenced by abuse, victimization, crime, domestic abuse, abandonment, poverty, labour, wars, pornography, crime and similar atrocities. This collection of papers presented by international experts at a global conference titled “Giving Children a Voice – The Transforming Role of the Family in a Global Society” challenges society at large to note the seriousness of child abuse, and the impact of technology on children. It raises questions on the rights of the child, and the role of parenthood in today’s contexts. The book, an excellent resource manual for researchers and those in professional practice, is sure to be a perennial source of inspiration to all those dealing with children.

We are often told that we are "living in an information society" or that we are "information workers." But what exactly do these claims mean, and how might they be verified? In this important methodological study, Alistair S. Duff cuts through the rhetoric to get to the bottom of the "information society thesis." Wide-ranging in coverage, this study will be of interest to scholars in information science, communication and media studies and social theory. It is a key text for the newly-unified specialism of information society studies, and an indispensable guide to the future of this discipline.

A text book on English

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) needs little introduction as the central figure in Romantic poetry and a crucial influence in the development of poetry generally. This broad-ranging survey redefines the variety of his writing by showing how it incorporates contemporary concepts of language difference and the ways in which popular and serious literature were compared and distinguished during this period. It discusses many of Wordsworth's later poems, comparing his work with that of his regional contemporaries as well as major writers such as Scott. The key theme of relationship, both between characters within poems and between poet and reader, is explored through Wordsworth's construction of community and his use of power relationships. A serious discussion of the place of sexual feeling in his writing is also included.

This novel volume investigates the motivations behind disruptive pupil behaviour and offers practical guidance through discussion of a novel theoretical framework that explores how students perceive schooling, uncovering what their behaviour can tell us about how to adjust the school environment. Drawing on cutting-edge research and internationally relevant themes, chapters argue that non-compliant behaviour by students is not mindlessly reactive but is purposeful – a means to make themselves heard. The book explores a dynamic understanding of the processes of placemaking and offers insights on how students create 'student-friendly' places by re-appropriating spaces within schools and why they might behave in certain ways. Arguing that the wider implications of a failure in educational policy is detrimental to student retainment and success, the book will ultimately have ramifications across disciplines and classroom contexts in improving student engagement. This book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and policy makers working in the fields of the sociology of education, teaching and teacher education, educational change and reform more broadly. Those looking into behaviour management, youth studies, and education policy will also find this book of interest.