Rolling out ‘good’, ‘best’ and ‘excellent’ practice. What next? Perfect practice?

The identification and dissemination of ‘good practice’ has for years been a central part of the Government's strategy for radical change of the education system. ‘Good practice’, however, is no longer good enough, nor is ‘best practice’. The requirement now for post‐compulsory education and training (from which all our examples are taken) is nothing less than ‘excellent practice for all’. This article critically examines these highly significant shifts in the rhetoric of policy, finds them wanting and argues that we need to face up to the complexities involved in deciding not only what is ‘excellent practice’ but also in working through all the stages which would be needed to transmit it throughout the sector. In particular, recent documents from the Quality Improvement Agency and the Learning and Skills Council on the pursuit of excellence are critically appraised. The views of those practitioners who are part of the authors' project in the Economic and Social Research Council's Teaching and Learning Research Programme are also explained in relation to ‘good practice’. The authors attempt to explain the frenetic activity of politicians and policy makers in this sector, and end by moving from critique to construction by considering what can be rescued from the inherently contestable notion of ‘good practice’, and, in doing so, draw heavily on the work of Robin Alexander.     

Experiences of Being Heterosexual Allies to Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual People: A Qualitative Exploration

In this qualitative study, heterosexual professionals with an interest in lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) issues were surveyed about their ally work with LGB people. Data were analyzed to describe participants' experiences. Results are discussed in terms of implications for counseling and student affairs professionals who engage in LGB‐affirmative work.     

Interculturality and Intercultural Education: A Challenge for Democracy

The paper examines the debate taking place in Peru, and also more generally in South and Central American countries with large indigenous populations, on the nature of interculturality and intercultural education. It investigates concepts fundamental to interculturality such as democracy and equality and asks what they mean in the context of the Peruvian state, civil society and the indigenous movement. It questions whether an interculturality based in apolitical calls for dialogue and respect for cultural and linguistic plurality can meet the needs of indigenous peoples and their daily confrontations with oppressive and unequal intercultural relations. Taking Peru as an example, it investigates the possibilities for the development of an interculturality that is characterised by equality and participation and which enables indigenous peoples to have greater control over their lives. It then briefly examines the nature of the intercultural lives of the Harakmbut of SE Peruvian Amazon and a new indigenous intercultural education programme which the Harakmbut hope will help them address the inequalities and exploitation which they face.     

Implementing a Whole School Equal Opportunities Policy: a primary school in Humberside

This paper describes both the successes and problems in implementing a school equal opportunities policy in an inner city primary school. After observing their own and one another's practice and being observed by the researcher, teachers were asked to devise projects which would bring about greater equality in opportunity for girls and boys. Wherever possible projects were integrated into chosen topic work. Projects covered a variety of areas from craft, design and technology to caring jobs for boys and football for girls. Positive images of women and men in non‐traditional roles were introduced through bringing visitors into the school.     

Teaching for deeper political learning: a design experiment

Is in-depth political learning possible in college-preparatory courses known for curricular breadth at an accelerated pace plus a high-stakes exam? A multidisciplinary research team conducted design-based implementation research (DBIR) for seven years across three school systems for the purpose of achieving deeper learning in an ‘advanced’ high school government and politics course. This article reports findings from the final year of research and development. The design centres on cyclical learning, projects (simulated political processes) and strategic use of texts as resources for learning the curriculum. Quantitative analysis shows comparable achievement to students in traditional classrooms on the high-stakes summative assessment despite the dramatic departure from test-prep instruction. Qualitative analyses focus on two of the design elements: learning from simulations and learning from text. The first allowed students to ‘experience’ political beliefs, institutions, and conflict, although simulated; the second required students to learn subject matter not only from simulations and teacher lectures but from texts, too. The discussion shows how these two in combination with cyclical learning required skilful attention to content selection. We conclude that when deeper learning is the goal, content selection cannot be elided or presumed, particularly with respect to the articulation of depth and breadth in curriculum and instruction.     

Meaningful actions and motivated projects in the transition to adulthood: two case illustrations

A framework for understanding career transitions based on the joint processes and goals of those engaged in the transition and significant others in the person’s social network was used to study the transition to adulthood of youth aged 17–19 years and their families. Twenty parent-youth dyads participated in this study in which a transition project was identified and monitored for 6 months. Two cases are used to illustrate the characteristics of the motivated transition project at the levels of meaning, functional processes, and conscious and unconscious behaviour and structural support and resources.