Narrative inquiry into (re)imagining alternative schools: a case study of Kevin Gonzales.

Although there are many alternative schools that strive for the successful education for their students, negative images of alternative schools persist. While some alternative schools are viewed as “idealistic havens,” many are viewed as “dumping grounds,” or “juvenile detention centers.” Employing narrative inquiry, this article interrogates how a student, Kevin Gonzales, experiences his alternative education and raises questions about the role of alternative schools. Kevin Gonzales’s story is presented in a literary form of biographical journal to provide a “metaphoric loft” that helps us imagine other students like Kevin. This, in turn, provokes us to examine our current educational practice, and to (re)imagine ways in which alternative education can provide the best possible educational experiences for disenfranchised students who are increasingly underserved by the public education system

Curricula for economic and social gain

Discusses ways of forming curriculum to promote employability and citizenship, without compromising academic values. Economic success is an aim of governments around the world. Their ‘human capital’ stance towards higher education implies the need to develop graduates’ capabilities to the full. The concept of graduate ‘employability’, currently being developed in the light of theory and empirical data, is beginning to find acceptance in the UK. One of the keys to its acceptability in higher education has been the alignment of employability with good learning – that is, learning that is manifested in complex outcomes. However, the achievement of complex outcomes requires a programme-level focus, rather than a focus on individual study units. This article reports on the way such a programme-level approach was adopted in four different universities in the UK, and how relatively small-scale actions have the potential to augment students’ employability. The implications for policy at the levels of the system, the higher education institution and the academic department are discussed

Lessons from the Great Underground Empire: Pedagogy, computers and False Dawn

The educational use of computers in the UK coincided with growing tensions between educators and government policy. This led to the imposition of a National Curriculum and policy that took scant account of research evidence or the views of professional educators. As a result of this unhappy coincidence, the UK failed to take early advantage of the educational benefits offered by this technology. The exploitation of the unique affordances of computers have seen a false dawn and dashed hopes but, slowly, a body of research has emerged that is now starting to identify where we should look and what we should do. However, the necessary changes would fundamentally alter the roles of teacher and learner within the educational system as well as government policy and this may go some way to explain government reluctance and the systemic inertia in the UK and elsewhere