Politics/Policies/Management

Institutions, Organisations, Agencies, Management, Politics, Policies, Work Teams, Group Dynamics, Professional Issues, Community Development.

Young Minds Online Resources This site contains a list of links to sites providing information about government policy and nattional reports and is comprehensive in its coverage.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Policies and Plans  This module demonstrates the need to promote the development of all children and adolescents, whether or not they have mental health problems. In addition, it is important to provide effective interventions and support to the 20% of children and adolescents believed to be suffering from overt mental health problems or disorders. The burden associated with mental disorders in children and adolescents is considerable, and it is made worse by stigma and discrimination. In many situations, mental disorders are poorly understood, and affected children are mistakenly viewed as “not trying hard enough” or as troublemakers.

Caring for Children & Adolescents  This Report presents updated information useful for the formulation of a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Care Plan, based on findings which emerged during discussions, as well as from other sources.

The Corporate Takeover of Childhood  Our schools are being privatised not for the benefit of our children, but for the benefit of our corporations, and the export economy to which, the government hopes, they will one day contribute. Children are simply the raw materials with which they work. They will unless their parents demand an end to this experiment of being traded on the world's stock markets like so many barrels of oil.

The New Practitioner  A post-modern perspective provides a means for radical questioning of the foundationalism and absolutism of modern conceptions of knowledge. In the field of mental health, this can be interpreted as the idea that no one person or approach has the definitive answer.

'I see managerialism as a virus  I see managerialism as a virus which has as its main attribute the destruction of altruism and of individual clinical and scholarly activity. I think that is a bad thing, for it suppresses individual oddities. Managerialism does not allow outliers, but it is from those outliers, those mavericks, those oddballs that innovation is spawned.

Public Ethics and the New Managerialism  In the following pages I consider the characteristics in the new public management or managerialism project with my eyes firmly fixed on issues of public sector ethics and government corruption. It is popular to take the view that the new managerialism hegemony leaves those of us interested in ethics in the position that we must accept its almost universal support and use our knowledge to determine how to make government as ethical as possible under the circumstances.

New managerialism in teacher education  professionalisation or re-professionalisation?

What Teachers are Saying about the New Managerialism  Since the mid-1970s, successive federal and state governments have redefined the governance structure of Australian schooling in accordance with the principles of the market and its corollary new managerialism. Against this backdrop, we set out in this article to examine how six senior teachers in one secondary school in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia have experienced and responded to these generic managerial reforms.

The beginning of New Managerialism's end?  Is the cult of measurement on the ropes, wonders David Boyle.

Managerialism and Education  Managerialism is a totalising technology that subsumes education to its discourse through what appears to be legitimate practices (including the language of efficiency and quality etc.). Since power is masked as legitimate authority under orthodox accounts of managerialism, an analysis of power is called for if the new managerialism is to be understood. These types of analyses of notions such as power, life, domination, meaning, rationality, and truth, suggest research into the worth of a project that increasingly governs public services.

French and British academic leaders  This chapter aims to analyse the gradual emergence and evolution of a local embodiment of what has come to be known in the specifically British (or even English) context as ‘new’ managerialism in higher education. To do so, it sketches a theoretical account of ‘new managerialism’; outlines a recent analysis of different facets of new managerialism / new public management and compares these with policy developments in the UK; reviews some relevant literature on the changing nature of academic work and discusses how this might affect its management; and reports some findings of a recent research project on the internal management of UK universities and its consequences for those working in them, whether as ‘managers’ or ‘managed’.

Promising Practices in Children’s Mental Health   A series of monographs on Promising Practices in Children's Mental Health. Wraparound: Stories from the Field; Learning from Families: Identifying Service Strategies for Success; Promising Practices in Early Childhood Mental Health; Cultural Strengths and Challenges in Implementing a System of Care Model in American Indian Communities; Using Evaluation Data to Manage, Improve, Market, and Sustain Children's Services; New Roles for Families in Systems of Care; Promising Practices in Family-Provider Collaboration; The Role of Education in a System of Care: Effectively Serving Children with Emotional or Behavioural Disorders, etc.

Market rationality, organisational rationality and professional rationality  In general, professional rationality makes claims for more or less autonomous professional discretion shaped by professional knowledge and ethics, and by the licence given to each profession by the state. The scope of this discretion clearly reflects each profession's power. This paper argues that the discretion of professionals working in formal organisations is further constrained and shaped by rationalities arising through the power relations in that organisational context. In particular, the discretion available within any organisation will tend to be shaped by organisational requirements. These include political, resourcing and accountability requirements, but they also include more structural matters, in particular managing or mitigating conflicts and contradictions that come from the mode of organisation.

Managing professionalism and organizational learning  This paper examines the changing role of intra-organisational, inter-organisational and societal learning in delivering state funded human services. It first outlines the patterns of institutions and processes through which these services are now delivered following the withdrawal of the state from direct service delivery. Non-government agencies that now deliver many of these services find themselves in a new type of organisational field characterised by fragmentation, competition and collaboration. This new field has major consequences for how effective organisation may achieved, many of which are still emerging and are poorly if at all understood. In this paper I consider in particular its effects on the capacity for knowledge transmission and learning within non-government agencies, and between these and government and the state. I pay particular attention to the potential role of professionals in facilitating knowledge transmission and learning.

Paraxes of Public-Sector Managerialism, Old Public Management and Public Sector Bargains  This paper considers three paradoxes or apparent contradictions in contemporary public management reform – paradoxes of globalisation or internationalisation, malade imaginaire (or successful failure) paradoxes, and paradoxes of half-hearted managerialism. It suggests that these three paradoxes can be explained by a comparative historical institutionalism linked to a motive-and-opportunity analysis of what makes some public service systems more susceptible to reform than others. It further argues that such explanations can be usefully linked together by exploring explore public service reform from the perspective of ‘public service bargains’ or PSBs (that is, explicit or implicit bargains between public servants and other actors in the society). Accordingly, it seeks to account for the three paradoxes of public management reform by looking at the effect of different PSB starting-points on reform experience, and at the way politician calculations over institutional arrangements could account for PSB shifts in some circumstances but not others.

Reconfiguring Professional Autonomy?  This paper examines the significance of the New Public Management for professional work in the health and higher education sectors in Britain and explores its impact on professional autonomy.

Constructing Organizations: The Example of Public Sector Reform  In this paper, it is argued that recent public-sector reforms can be interpreted as attempts at constructing organisations. Public-sector entities that could formerly be described as agents or arenas have been transformed into 'more complete' organisations by installing or reinforcing local identity, hierarchy and rationality. This interpretation helps to explain important aspects of the reform process.

Sociology Internet Resources  Useful social science links.

Academy for the Study of the Psychoanalytic Arts Many useful papers.

ZNet  Social change: is a continuous town meeting and intellectual and activist service centre for large sectors of the progressive community.

Clinical Governance Support Team  Site with the aim of helping you implement clinical governance. It offers practical support through development programmes, information about clinical governance, lessons from development work across the country and there is a place to find answers to your clinical governance questions.

Clinical Governance  Department of Health Site. “Clinical governance is the system through which NHS organisations are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care, by creating an environment in which clinical excellence will flourish.”

Clinical Governance Bulletin  Clinical Governance Bulletin is a bi-monthly publication for clinicians and managers working in Trusts, Health Authorities and PCGs which highlights and disseminates best practice. Articles focus on a broad range of issues in health management such as risk management, clinical effectiveness, managing resources, and improving communication.

Controversy Surrounds Evidence - Based Practices  Evidence-based research really supports the status quo because most evidence-based research looks at symptoms, recidivism, and treatment outcomes. It doesn't look at key consumer outcomes such as recovery and empowerment.

Limitations of Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines  Evidence-based practice guidelines, like all guidelines, can be flawed, advocating interventions that are not in the best interest of patients. Sometimes the errors stem from limitations in the science itself, such as lack of data or poor generalisability. Sometimes errors occur when panel members reach invalid conclusions in translating science into policy. Biases or conflicts of interest among panel members, often exacerbated when outspoken individuals dominate the process, can produce different recommendations than the data support. Recommendations that do not give guidance on individualisation or that reduce complex decisions into simplistic algorithms may be overly rigid and may result in more harm than good.

Evidence-based medicine: a commentary on common criticisms  Discussions about evidence-based medicine engender both negative and positive reactions from clinicians and academics. Ways to achieve evidence-based practice are reviewed here and the most common criticisms described.

The limits of evidence-based medicine.  the type of knowledge gained from clinical research, referred to here as "empirical evidence," is itself insufficient to provide for optimal clinical care. A gap exists between empirical evidence and clinical practice. Proponents of evidence-based medicine have clearly acknowledged one aspect of this gap: the part that requires the consideration of values, both patient and professional, prior to arriving at medical decisions. Not as clearly recognised, however, is the gap that exists due to the fact that empirical evidence is not directly applicable to individual patients, as the knowledge gained from clinical research does not directly answer the primary clinical question of what is best for the patient at hand. Proponents of evidence-based medicine have made a conceptual error by grouping knowledge derived from clinical experience and physiologic rationale under the heading of "evidence" and then have compounded the error by developing hierarchies of "evidence" that relegate these forms of medical knowledge to the lowest rungs.

Nobody ever expects the Spanish Inquisition  Should guidelines be used unthinkingly to dictate practice, then the worst fears of both those with antipathy to evidence-based medicine (EBM), and those who support EBM are realised. Practitioners hostile to their perceived impressions of evidence-based practice will see inappropriately constructed or implemented guidelines as constraining of clinical freedom, often drawn up by those losing touch with ‘real world’ medicine and cries of ‘dictation by numbers’ will be heard throughout the land. On the other hand, the accusation of ‘dictation by numbers’ — justified if guidelines are used as stipulations for practice — will also disturb those who wished EBM to be the "conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients"

Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services  The authors describe major dimensions that differentiate evidence-based practices for children from those for adults and summarise the status of the scientific literature on a range of service practices. The readiness of the child and adolescent evidence base for large-scale dissemination should be viewed with healthy scepticism until studies of the fit between empirically based treatments and the context of service delivery have been undertaken. Acceleration of the pace at which evidence-based practices can be more readily disseminated will require new models of development of clinical services that consider the practice setting in which the service is ultimately to be delivered.

Some considerations on the validity of evidence-based practice in social work  It shows that evidence-based practice proposes a particular deterministic version of rationality which is unsatisfactory. Evidence-based practice is derived from ideas based on optimal behaviour in a planned and systematically organised environment. The paper goes on to suggest that the tendency to separate processes into 'facts' and 'values' implicit in evidence-based procedures undermines professional judgement and discretion in social work. The third part of the paper focuses on the connection between method and ideology in evidence-based practice. It examines how the evidence-based preoccupation with positivistic methods and determinate judgement entraps social workers within a mechanistic for of technical rationality. This framework restricts social work to a narrow ends-means rationality such that only certain forms of action are considered legitimate. This feeds into the rhetoric of new managerialist strategies aimed at developing a performance culture by further regulating and controlling individual practitioners.

Evidence-based psychoanalysis: Symptoms or relationships  Leuzinger-Bohleber (2002) argued that different sciences of necessity have their own research methodology: “Some leading philosophers of science state that this problem is not unique to psychoanalysis; all contemporary sciences have developed a research methodology specific to their subject and have developed their own criteria of scientific quality and ‘truth’”. It may be that persuading public-funders to accept non-standard research results is difficult but necessary

The case against ‘the evidence’: a different perspective on evidence-based medicine  An evidenced-based approach to psychiatry is playing an increasingly prominent role in treatment decision-making for individual patients and for populations. Many doctors are now critical of the emphasis being placed on ‘the evidence’ and concerned that clinical practice will become more constrained. Aim: To demonstrate that evidence-based medicine is not new, sources of evidence are limited and psychosocial aspects of medicine are neglected in this process.

Evidence-based mental health policy: a critical appraisal  The aims of this review are fourfold: first, to outline the development of the ‘evidence-based’ project; second, to summarise growing clinical and social criticism of this approach; third, to examine the research evidence on which British mental health policy currently relies; and finally, to consider how this evidence base might in future be improved, in terms of balance and coverage.

Clinical Audit  FOCUS on Clinical Audit in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services aims to 'demystify' the process of clinical audit for those working in child and adolescent mental health services. It provides a step-by-step guide to clinical audit followed by examples of clinical audit projects undertaken in child and adolescent mental health services across Great Britain. While recognising the complexity and challenges which are particular to this specialty, it provides professionals with a pragmatic yet rigourous guide to clinical audit.

Human Resources and Training in Mental Health  This module is part of the WHO Mental Health Policy and Service Guidance Package, which provides practical information for assisting countries to improve the mental health of their populations. This module focuses on Human Resources and Training in Mental Health.

Dysfunctional Managers Recent research compared the personalities of in-mates of a maximum security prison and successful CEOs of quoted companies. The game, of course, was to find similarities rather than differences. And this is indeed what was found. The groups are most similar on three personality disorders; anti-social, narcissistic and paranoid. And this partly explains why such “unusual” types make it to, and fall from, the very top. The problem is that sheer ability and hard work alone are not enough to climb the slippery pole to the top of organisations.

The tyranny of toxic managers Toxic managers are a fact of life. Some managers are toxic most of the time; most managers are toxic some of the time. Knowing how to deal with people who are rigid, aggressive, self-centred or exhibit other types of dysfunctional behaviour can improve your own health and that of others in the workplace. This author describes the mechanisms for coping.

Narcissistic Managers The narcissist is just one type of corporate psychopath and it shares probably more then 90% of traits with the general case of psychopathic manager whose true character is disguised behind an image he/she wants to project. Moreover, Alexander Lowen suggested that paranoid personality is a subtype  of “narcissistic character”.

Narcissistic Leaders & Effective Crisis Management Being able to effectively respond in the event of a crisis is important to an organisation’s survival.  In the event of a crisis, effective leadership by senior officials performs a significant role in an organisation’s attempt to return to a state of normal operation.  Effectiveness, however, can be hampered by a leader’s behaviour and attitude towards colleagues, and other employees within the organisation.  This paper explores how narcissistic leaders may affect crisis management within an organisation.  Using the literature on narcissism and crisis management, this paper examines how a narcissist’s style of leadership may affect the pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis stages of crisis management.  The paper concludes by offering suggestions on how to handle narcissistic leaders within an organisational setting.

"When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free." Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948)

Organisations, Community Development, Work Teams, Group Dynamics

Study Group Consultancy: Elements of the Task  This collection of brief essays is intended to promote reflection on the task of consulting to a study group or self-analytic group met in the context of a Tavistock group relations conference.

International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations  Provides a forum for academics, clinicians, consultants and others interested in working in and with organizations utilizing psychoanalytic concepts and insights. The Symposia section of the site contains a number of conference papers on a variety of subjects.

The Association of Therapeutic Communities  Much information about therapeutic communities, a radical group-based therapeutic approach, from a UK perspective.

Social Psychology Links  Theories and methods, gender and sex, environmental psychology, emotions, group dynamics, mass media, modernisation, etc.

Centre for the Study of Work Teams  Much information about the dynamics and processes of work teams.

OPUS  OPUS is an organisation of people who believe that it is important that we and others develop a deeper understanding of organisational and societal processes and the way in which we relate to them; and that we use such understanding to act with authority and responsibility in our various roles. OPUS exists therefore to promote the development of the reflective citizen. The objective of OPUS is to promote and develop the study of conscious and unconscious organisational and societal dynamics through educational activities; research; consultancy and training; and, the publication and dissemination of these activities for the public benefit.

Articles: Organisational Culture, Change Management, etc.  Some articles which may be of interest to those who work with or in organisations and wish to understand organisational processes, relationships, and dynamics.

Beacon Community Resource Centre  Rebirth of a community: 'This project has turned around a small estate in Cornwall that was in the grip of strife and fear.

Community Psychology UK  Community Psychology is orientated to the community rather than the individual as the basic unit of analysis and intervention.  (It is not just the practice of individual applied psychology in community contexts.  For this reason we sometimes call our orientation Community Social Psychology, the term used widely in Latin America).  Our orientation is broadly radical, underpinned by values of social justice, liberation, empowerment and inclusion of people marginalised by the existing order.  However we also emphasise conceptual and methodological rigour, in the practice and the theory of community psychology - as research and as collaboration with diverse communities.

Community Toolbox Our goal is to support your work in promoting community health and development. The Tool Box provides over 6,000 pages of practical skill-building information on over 250 different topics. Topic sections include step-by-step instruction, examples, check-lists, and related resources.

Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management The notion of Organizational Learning (OL) has become very prominent. Managers see OL as a powerful tool to improve the performance of an organization. Generally, one can distinguish between two different processes of organizational change that are associated with OL.

Organisational Dynamics Links Our focus is on the systems and psychodynamics of organizational leadership and performance.

Organisational Psychodynamics For further exploration of the ideas and concepts introduced during the 2-day seminar: Systems & Psychodynamics of Organizational Leadership & Performance: University of Chicago, Feb. 3-4, 2003.

Organisational Life In this paper I explore some of the mechanisms which underlie large group dynamics and show how they can help to illumine some of the destructive processes which may occur when more than about a dozen people meet together. Insights derived from large group perspectives will be used to help explain the dynamics of an organisational event in which a group of experienced consultants were reduced to feelings of profound incompetence and helplessness. Finally I will suggest some ways in which the negative effects of large group dynamics may be ameliorated.

Professional Issues

Legal, Ethical, and Professional Issues in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Legal, Ethical, and Professional Issues in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy: articles and links

Ethics Codes and Practice Guidelines This page presents links to therapy, counseling, forensic, and related ethics (and practice) codes developed by professional organizations (e.g., of psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, marriage and family counselors).

Confronting UK Psycho-Practice Professionalisation These screens are devoted to exposing and challenging the contradictions, fallacies and incongruities of the 'professionalisation' through which trade associations such as UKCP are attempting to colonise psycho-practice in the UK.

Clinical Supervision Our primary aim in developing this site is to help promote and support the development of clinical supervision in nursing.

Association of Therapeutic Communities: On Accreditation The matter which we ostensibly are addressing in this morning's session is the accreditation of therapeutic community trainings, and the proposal to set in place structures which would oversee and regulate these. But under this most innocent of headings, what a can of worms there is to be opened up! We can foresee something of what lies ahead, as we follow, with the very best of intentions, the example of psychotherapy. This has in the last few years seen the formation of a professional register, with all the attendant bureaucracy to do with regulation, standards and controls; with compulsory insurance, and increasing linkage of trainings to the world of formal higher education. Originally proposed as a voluntary measure, it seems that the statutory regulation of psychotherapy is now being seriously considered, if not actively pursued, by the UKCP, with the circulation of Lord Alderdice's draft Psychotherapy Bill.

Professionalisation Links This website is a forum for those who are worried about the process of regulation and professionalisation in which the Alexander Technique is now engaged in various countries around the world. Many Alexander Technique teachers feel that there are dangers inherent in these developments which have not been adequately discussed among the members of our occupation and believe that the process reflects worrying developments in the wider world of government, society and education which run counter to the principles and values of our work.

Ivan Illich Archive Ivan Illich can be considered one of the most radical political and social thinkers in the second half of the twentieth century. His aim is to analyse the institutional structures of industrialised society and to provide both rigorous criticism and a set of alternative concepts. The main thrust of his criticism goes against a society which endorses growth economy, political centralisation, and unlimited technology.

Ivan Illich on the Web Ivan Illich became well known in 1970, when he published Deschooling Society which argued that the top-down management of schools makes students powerless - and that the same top-down management is typical of the modern, technological economy that prevents people from learning. Tools for Conviviality made the same criticism of technology generally. Along with Energy and Equity, this book made Ivan Illich one of the most important theorists of the radical ecology movement of the 1970s.

A Question of Trust, Reith Lectures We say we no longer trust our public services, institutions or the people who run them. Politicians, accountants, doctors, scientists, businessmen, auditors and many others are treated with suspicion. Their word is doubted, their motives are questioned. Onora O'Neill challenges current approaches to accountability, investigates sources of deception in our society and re-examines questions of press freedom.

Ivan Illich Known for his critique of modernization and the corrupting impact of institutions, Ivan Illich's concern with deschooling, learning webs and the disabling effect of professions has struck a chord among many informal educators. We explore key aspects of his theory and his continuing relevance for informal education and lifelong learning.

The Professionalisation of Counselling The 1990s may well be remembered as "the professionalisation years" in counselling. Setting ourselves up as a profession and installing compulsory registration has been a major concern. So much has been written about the subject that some people seem tired of hearing about it. This paper will focus on why that "whingeing" is still continuing, and indeed why anyone would be against counselling gaining respect as a profession and proving its worth through research and well-policed registered practice.

Sociological Theory and Theorists Durkheim, Elias, Friere, Goffmann, Gramsci, Marx, Mead, Parsons, Weber, etc.

IPNOSIS a journal for the Independent Practitioners Network.

HPC Watchdog Monitoring how the Health Professions Council operates in practice.

Alliance Against State Regulation Many psychotherapists and counsellors are disturbed and unconvinced by current proposals for state regulation through the Health Professions Council, also known as statutory regulation.

Supervision

Clinical Supervision Our primary aim in developing this site is to help promote and support the development of clinical supervision in nursing. The question of whether supervision is effective or not is a difficult one to answer. While empirical outcome-based research is relatively scarce, there is evidence to suggest that clinical supervision is popular amongst those practitioners who receive it.  However, whether this is enough of a reason for the large scale investment of public health funds remains to be seen.

Social Work Supervisors Home Page My intention in creating this site was for it to be a place where the valuable work of social work supervisors is appreciated. A site where the supervision of social work practice is seen as a core field of social work practice and which considers supervision to be a social workers most important professional relationship.

Institutions/Agencies

Education

Assessment Reform Network works to end the misuses and flaws of standardised testing and to ensure that evaluation of students, teachers and schools is fair, open, valid and educationally beneficial.

A. S. Neill’s Summerhill School Summerhill School is a progressive, co-educational, residential school, founded by A. S. Neill in 1921; in his own words, it is a `free school' though this does not mean, alas, that it is state funded. The freedom Neill was referring to was the personal freedom of the children in his charge. Summerhill is first and foremost a place where children can discover who they are and where their interests lie in the safety of a self-governing, democratic community.

Students Against Testing SAT is a nationwide network of young people who resist high stakes standardised testing and support real-life learning.

National Dropout Prevention Centre attempts to increase the chances of students gaining a reasonable education in the face of educational and social trends.

Toward a better understanding of parent-teacher-child relationships The concepts presented in this paper are based upon the concept that behavior is purposive and goal-directed. To those not sophisticated in psychology, the ideas appear to be more of common sense than anything else. To those who have read and studied psychology, the concepts may be contradictory to the beliefs held. It is hoped that at the least the Kindergarten teachers and others may gain some understanding of the challenges that the 5-year old faces.

The Cause of Conformity Because motivation is such a critical issue in learning, and because failure is such an idiosyncratic affair, school reformers often miss the forest for the trees. While reformers worry about standards, test scores, and cultural literacy, the real issue is the curriculum. Students who are held to rigid curricula with tests at the end cannot help but begin to believe that learning means getting a good grade. When a student knows what is expected of him, he will usually conform, and therein lies the problem.

Critical Pedagogy Critical pedagogy takes as a central concern the issue of power in the teaching and learning context. It focuses on how and in whose interests knowledge is produced and 'passed on' and view the ideal aims of education as emancipatory.

Early Childhood Education This site features book-centred strategies and resources that promote learning for children through the use of classic and contemporary literature. Books are selected to provoke interest in discussions about the literature itself, or about mathematics, science, environmental education, developmental issues, diversity, and other themes. The programs help children from birth through grade 12 learn through reading, discussion, and hands-on activities with knowledgeable and caring adults. The Mother Goose Program features literature which create enjoyable and stimulating reading experiences to enrich everyday adventures.

School Resource Links

Whole School Approaches The projects described in this report set out to discover how
best to work with children beginning to show signs of difficulty to help them integrate more fully into schools and thereby increase their capacity not only to make positive relationships and behave well but also to learn.

Disruptive behaviour in school Descriptions and management.

John Holt and Growing Without Schooling John Holt's explorations of the failures of formal teaching and schooling influenced a generation of educators. By looking to the experiences and interests of children, and the sense they made of learning and education, he can found great possibilities.

John Holt: Common Objections to Homeschooling People, especially educators, who hear me talk about homeschooling, raise certain objections so often that it is worth answering them here.

John Holt "I choose to define it here as most people do, something that some people do to others for their own good, moulding and shaping them, and trying to make them learn what they thing they ought to know. Today, everywhere in the world, that is what "education" has become, and I am wholly against it. People spend a great deal of time- as for years I did myself- talking about how to make "education" more effective and efficient, or how to do it or give it to more people, or how to reform or humanise it. But to make it more effective and efficient will only be to make it worse, and to help it do even more harm. It cannot be reformed, cannot be carried out wisely or humanely, because its purpose is neither wise nor humane."

Paul Goodman: Compulsory Miseducation “It is in the schools and from the mass media, rather than at home or from their friends, that the mass of our citizens in all classes learn that life is inevitably routine, depersonalised, venally graded; that it is best to toe the mark and shut up; that there is no place for spontaneity, open sexuality, free spirit. Trained in the schools, they go on to the same quality of jobs, culture, politics. This is education, mis-education, socialising to the national norms and regimenting to the national `needs’.

Neil Postman Information Page A subversive teacher, then, is one who firmly realises these "truths" about learning. Despite the system’s focus on product (predetermined curriculum and test scores), the subversive teacher actively attempts to redesign the structure of the classroom to focus instead on process. Some of the attitudinal characteristics of such "teachers in action" as listed by Postman & Weingartner include: The teacher rarely tells students what he thinks; Generally, he does not accept a single statement as an answer to a question; He encourages student-student interaction as opposed to student-teacher interaction, generally avoids acting as a mediator or judging the quality of ideas expressed; He rarely summarises the positions taken by students on the learnings that occur; He recognises that the act of summary or "closure" tends to have the effect of ending further thought; Generally, each of his lessons pose a problem for students; His lessons develop from the responses of students and not from a previously determined "logical" structure. Postman & Weingartner give much attention to challenging the traditional methods of teaching quite directly, as well as suggesting alternative approaches.

Collected Articles of Neil Postman. “The schools have assumed the burden of solving extremely important problems, but they are simply not equipped to achieve the solutions. If you heap upon the school all of the problems that the family, the church, the political system, and the economy cannot solve, the school becomes a kind of well-financed garbage dump, from which very little can be expected except the unsweet odour of failure”.

Neil Postman Writing on the Web Neil Postman, who was chair of the Department of Culture and Communications at New York University, wrote important books on education (including Teaching as a Conserving Activity and The Disappearance of Childhood), on the effect of media (Amusing Ourselves to Death), and on the overall effects of technology (Technopoly).

Radical Teacher founded in 1975, is a socialist, feminist, and anti-racist journal dedicated to the theory and practice of teaching.

Herbert Kohl an educator best known for his advocacy of progressive alternative education and as the acclaimed author of more than thirty books on education.

Ivan Illich. Deschooling Society Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance. Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby "schooled" to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. His imagination is "schooled" to accept service in place of value. Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work. Health, learning, dignity, independence, and creative endeavour are defined as little more than the performance of the institutions which claim to serve these ends, and their improvement is made to depend on allocating more resources to the management of hospitals, schools, and other agencies in question.

Ivan Illich: deschooling, conviviality and the possibilities for informal education and lifelong learning Known for his critique of modernisation and the corrupting impact of institutions, Ivan Illich's concern with deschooling, learning webs and the disabling effect of professions has struck a chord among many informal educators. We explore key aspects of his theory and his continuing relevance for informal education and lifelong learning.

Everett Reimer authored a number of books on educational policy and was a proponent of deschooling.

Sure Start

SureStart Evaluations This website is intended for all those concerned with or interested in the evaluation of Sure Start, but has particular relevance for staff employed in Sure Start projects and local Evaluators of Sure Start projects.

Forensic

Forensic Network The main aim of the site is to provide a forum for communication between individuals and organisations involved in Forensic Mental Health Care.

Terry Birchmore