Developing Equitable Education Systems

Why is that despite years of reform the poorest children are still not well served by education systems? Developing education systems in which the link between social disadvantage, school outcomes and life chances can be effectively broken is a policy challenge facing education systems around the world. This book focuses on ways of responding to this agenda. It argues that in many countries, despite years of reform, children still enter school systems from unequal backgrounds, are given access to unequal experiences and then leave with unequal outcomes. Working with schools in one English district over five years, this team of high-profile, internationally renowned researchers throws light on the challenges of moving school systems in a more equitable direction and how these challenges can be addressed. In so doing they illustrate the use of an inquiry-based approach that has proved to be an effective strategy for use within individual schools. The evidence is, however, that whilst this approach has great potential for individual school improvement, its use as a strategy for system change is problematic within current policy contexts. With this in mind, the book analyses the nature of these difficulties in order to formulate proposals for moving education systems in a more equitable direction. Given current policy moves to extend the diversity of provision - for example, the introduction of charter schools in the USA, free schools in Sweden and academies in England - this is a most timely book. Whilst such innovations are intended to promote more effective forms of education for all children and young people, the worry is that they will further fragment education systems and, in so doing, create situations whereby the improvement of one school leads to a decline in the performance of others. This makes system level reform even more vital if we are to develop greater equity. At an important time in global, political and educational change, this informative book will be an invaluable aid to anyone researching or involved in education policy and politics, and the sociology of education, as well as those professionals working in organizations and companies guiding the future of education.

Mel Ainscow is Professor of Education and Co-Director of the Centre for Equity in Education in the School of Education at the University of Manchester, Uk. Alan Dyson is Professor of Education and Co-Director of the Centre for Equity in Education in the School of Education at the University of Manchester, Uk. Sue Goldrick is a Researcher for the Centre for Equity in Education in the School of Education at the University of Manchester, Uk. Mel West Professor of Education and Head of the School of Education at the University of Manchester, Uk.