The School Years

The School Yearspresents a lively collection of essays on key issues affecting young people in the school setting. This edition takes into account the major social changes which have occurred since 1979--changes which have had a direct impact on education and adolescents. The contributors, five of whom are new since the first edition, take an entirely new and up-to-date approach to current controversial issues. Poverty and unemployment, the schooling of post-sixteen-year-olds, the problems of sexual and emotional abuse, the phenomenon of AIDS, issues of gender, race and equal opportunities, increasing divorce rates--all these have affected the lives of children and adolescents. In addition, in many countries education reforms have altered the organization and ethos of the school setting, inevitably creating greater challenges for the students. The contributors explore the fundamental questions about human development in the school, focusing on such aspects as the learning ofgender roles, the origin of the concept of self, the role of the peer group, the development of morality, the causes of delinquency, and the relation between home and school. The School Yearscovers the current controversial issues having to do with the socialization of young people and also provides a broad theoretical perspective on the subject. It will be an essential book for all those concerned with adolescence and education.