The Social Agenda of the School
Jim O'Brien and Gale Macleod
Description:
Schooling is not just about learning new knowledge and skills, it is about preparing young people to take an active role in society and involves ‘educating the whole child’. Equally there is a greater understanding of the rights of children now enshrined in legislation associated with educational provision in many systems.
In response to changing curricular imperatives and organisational initiatives, schools have developed structures and approaches that offer care and support for individual students and have strived to develop partnerships with parents and major stakeholders. As society changes and schools have become more complex institutions, the nature of that care and support has taken on new forms and meanings. Priorities have changed and teacher conditions of service and management responsibilities are different. This book traces the developments associated with policy initiatives such as guidance and pastoral care; support for learning; the inclusion agenda; new community schools and personal and social education. The Scottish experience is compared and contrasted with developments in the UK and other educational systems.
The book will appeal to all who are concerned with the role played by schools in their wider social context, be they policy makers, school managers, teachers and those seeking to take an active role in social education.

Contents: Series Editors’ Introduction; Acknowledgements; 1 The social agenda of the school; 2 Guidance and pastoral care; 3: Personal and social education (PSE); 4: Inclusion – aspects of theory, policy and practice; 5: Bringing it all together? Integrated Community Schools; References; Index

Jim O’Brien is Head of the Moray House School of Education and Director of the Centre for Educational Leadership at the University of Edinburgh. Gale Macleod is a lecturer in primary education and SEBD in the school of education at the University of Edinburgh.