Over the past two years, the Primary Education Voices podcast has welcomed dozens of inspirational educators with a variety of roles across primary education to share what they are passionate about. This book gives some of these educators the chance to discuss their ideas, research and reflections in a more in-depth manner to help the reader reflect more deeply about their own practice. This publication is a collation of writing of incredible philosophies, resources and ideas from primary practitioners, for primary practitioners. Engaging chapters cover a wide range of topics for the contributors of this book to share: from developing the right ethos and culture in your school or classroom, to considering how to make your curriculum more rich and inclusive, to considering how to look after your own well-being and vitality in the role of a primary educator. Within each chapter, you will hear from a number of contributors and be given the space to reflect on what they have shared, along with some thought-provoking questions to prompt you on how to adapt and refine your practice. These ideas and insights will be essential to all who work within the primary sector including trainees, early career teachers and middle and senior leaders, as well as all those who support and consult with these individuals who seek to change and improve their practice.

As the world begins to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and grapples to find ways to respond to climate change, there is growing recognition of the need to give space and time in primary schools to hear children’s experiences, ideas and perspectives on these matters and to promote their active participation in democratic solutions. This book presents vibrant examples from professional educators and researchers across the globe who are demonstrating how primary schools can nurture the conditions for new democratic education through empowering educators’ and children’s voices and agency. Written as a genuine partnership between research experts and experienced classroom teachers, the book delves into historic and contemporary theories and evidence about the children’s voices movement, and new democratic education, helping to root teachers’ practices to strong educational theoretical concepts. The second section presents a set of diverse and detailed examples drawn from primary classrooms and schools that illustrate how these ideas are taking shape in teaching and learning across the world; chapters will bring to life the principles upon which schools have empowered young voices, sharing examples of success and thriving students. Finally, a set of thought-provoking manifestos will offer new opportunities and fresh theories for educators to explore, with the purpose and intention to take forward in their own primary school contexts. This is a vital resource for any new or experienced teacher or school leader looking to take research-informed and principled approaches to changes in schools so that teaching and learning ignites the social imagination for 21st-century educators and learners.

Voices from the Classroom illustrates that teachers have a leading voice in the policies that impact their students and the profession of teaching. The aim is to provide a rich and broad view of the impact of inquiry in the classrooms, from primary to higher education, and to provide a window into the perspective of teachers. Voices from the Classroom allows us to advance this mission by identifying and then turning educators' ideas into action. The publication includes chapters on issues ranging from dyslexic students' geospatial abilities to teachers' differential behaviours related, student characteristics and the experiences of refugees with bullying in the educational space. All the contributions published in this book emerged from real classrooms: our teachers and researchers conducted their research by drawing on their experience as educators. We believe that these insights into everyday classrooms, and the issues affecting them, are crucial to making teaching and learning better. We hope they can help drive real, positive change for students and teachers.

Not everyone has had a straight and narrow path into academia. Many higher education teachers, in fact, were professionals before they became part of the university or college where they work; and many keep one foot in both worlds even while they teach. Especially in programs designed to support students in a field of practice (education, nursing, and others), teachers find that being an academic or a scholar is supplementary to being a professional. And yet the demands of scholarship remain a component of their academic work-research, publishing, and the rest.Inspired by scholarly narratives like those from Ruth Behar, bell hooks, Jonathan Kozol, and others, Voices of Practice inspects, interrupts, questions, and reconstructs what it means to be a scholar, using deeply personal reflections, poignant vignettes, and carefully examined timelines of intellectual and professional development. This volume features educators who may not at first call themselves "academics" and who have focused their careers on the practice rather than the publishing of scholarship.

From the birth of a formal education system through the end of slavery in the early nineteenth century to today’s struggles to incorporate technology into classrooms, this book delivers a detailed history of schooling in the British Virgin Islands. Charles H. Wheatley, OBE, PhD, a lifelong educator and school administrator, has been practicing his craft since 1955 when the first Education Act was passed in the Virgin Islands Legislature. He puts the classroom to life on the printed page. The author highlights the struggles and triumphs of the leaders, elders, and heroes in the growth of the educational system, focusing on the period from 1834 to 2016. On this journey, you will hear various voices of British Virgin Islanders as they fought for better educational opportunities for the children of the territory—and you’ll see faces of change as society evolved. Each chapter addresses issues in education from a historical perspective, with the characteristics of each historical period clarifying the roots from which our educational growth started. Trace the path of the British Virgin Islands’ development through the prism of the educational strides its made while responding to massive demographic, social, and technological change.

This book provides a rich and nuanced examination of children learning to read and write a second language in primary schools in Kenya, taught by teachers who themselves have often learned English as a second or third language. The author uses two case studies, of an urban and a rural school, to explore how different socioeconomic and cultural contexts can affect the enactment of language policies and their effect on literacy. This book contributes a unique perspective to studies in language and literacy education due to its distinctive exploration of young children learning to read and write in the English language in Kenya, and it will be of particular interest to students and scholars of applied linguistics, language education, bilingualism and language policy.

Providing a ‘one stop’ text, Understanding the Voices and Educational Experiences of Autistic Young People is a unique and comprehensive contribution to bridge the gap between theory, research and practice. Based on the author’s teaching and research experience, this book provides a theoretical and practical framework for participatory rights-based autism research and demonstrates the benefits of – and growing emphasis on – voice and participation research; if done correctly it can be of immense benefit to policy, practice and how we support autistic young people. Alongside a critical and extensive review of research literature and debate on the efficacy of mainstream inclusion for autistic children, the book provides practical advice on how to support autistic children in research and in school. Significantly, Goodall investigates and presents the educational experiences of autistic young people – including girls – and their suggestions to improve educational practice from their own perspectives, as opposed to adult stakeholders. This book will act as a key text for student teachers, practitioner-researchers, those already supporting autistic children in education or social settings (including teachers, school leaders, special education leads, policymakers) and academics researching in the areas of autism and inclusion.