International evidence suggests that educational reform’s progress
depends on teachers’ individual and collective capacity and its link with schoolwide
capacity for promoting pupils’ learning. Building capacity is therefore
critical. Capacity is a complex blend of motivation, skill, positive learning,
organisational conditions and culture, and infrastructure of support. Put together,
it gives individuals, groups, whole school communities and school systems the
power to get involved in and sustain learning over time. Developing professional
learning communities appears to hold considerable promise for capacity building
for sustainable improvement. As such, it has become a ‘hot topic’ in many
countries.

Professional Learning Communities: A Review of the Literature

The issue of social-class-related patterns of access to Higher Education (HE) has become a matter of public debate in the UK recently, but is on the whole portrayed one-sidedly in terms of issues of selection (elitism), and the social dimensions of choice are neglected. Here, drawing on an Economic and Social Research Council research study, choice of HE is examined using Bourdieu's concepts of 'classification' and 'judgement'. HE is viewed in terms of its internal status differentiations. Students' positive and negative choices are addressed using qualitative and quantitative data, and the 'accuracy' of status perceptions are also tested. It is argued that choices are infused with class and ethnic meanings and that choice-making plays a crucial role in the reproduction of divisions and hierarchies in HE, but also that the very idea of choice assumes a kind of formal equality that obscures 'the effects of real inequality'. HE choices are embedded in different kinds of biographies and institutional habitus...

'Classification' and 'Judgement': Social Class and the 'Cognitive Structures' of Choice of Higher Education

School Effectiveness Findings 1979–2002

Improving Schools in Socio-economically Disadvantaged Areas: a Review of Research Evidence

Schools in difficult and challenging circumstances have received increasing policy and to some extent research attention in recent years. Improving schools in these circumstances is likely to prove a difficult process. This literature review has attempted to collect research on improving schools in these areas. Themes emerging from the literature include: a focus on teaching and learning, leadership, creating an information-rich environment, creating a positive school culture, building a learning community, continuous professional development, involving parents, external support and resources. The crucial issue of sustaining improvement is also discussed.

Improving Schools in Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Areas ? A Review of Research Evidence

Part 1 The problem of school mix: the social limits of reform school effectiveness research and the enduring problem of school mix possible mechanisms and a research strategy. Part 2 The Wellington schools: setting the scene it's not what you know... the negotiated curriculum the art of the possible. Part 3 Theory, practice, policy and research: understanding the impact of school mix social class segregation and the politics of polarization and blame improvement research - how realistic? conclusion - let's be realistic!.

Martin Thrupp

Papers

Schools Making a Difference: Let's Be Realistic! : School Mix, School Effectiveness, and the Social Limits of Reform