C.A Simon

Designing accredited continuing professional development for the Children’s Workforce: challenges and opportunities facing higher education in England

There is no doubt that education services and welfare policy are now seen as key drivers within the high‐priority social policy arena of Children’s Services that has become the dominant reform of local authorities throughout England. This article considers questions surrounding the issue of how an effective continuing professional development framework can be developed for the Children’s Workforce, linked to higher education accreditation. This is explored within the current context of an emergent Integrated Qualifications Framework for the UK Children’s Workforce that is also aligned to the same levels within the European Qualifications Framework.

Extended schooling and community education: mapping the policy terrain

New Labour’s extended schools initiative added to existing models of community schooling. The paper identifies the key principles behind extended schooling, making comparisons with historical models and contemporary trends in community education. Part one examines New Labour’s use of extended schools to deliver their social policy agenda. Part two focuses on alternative models of community schooling used in England and Scotland, suggesting alternative solutions to issues of social disadvantage and educational underachievement. Part three examines the European tradition of social pedagogy exploring the potential contributions it brings to educational and welfare practice in England given the new Government’s approach to localism and the ‘Big Society’.

Are Two Heads Better than One? System School Leadership Explained and Critiqued.

ABSTRACT ‘System leadership’, as applied to the running of schools, refers to a form of leadership that extends beyond a single institution, where headteachers work with establishments other than their own. This approach is predicated on certain beliefs about the role and purpose of collaborative school leadership and management in a marketised system of state schooling and the benefits of a distributed and networked approach to school improvement. But what are the potential benefits and limitations of school system leadership? What normative interpretations of the system are best suited for purpose? This paper explores these issues with reference to the English school system, where system leadership is actively promoted by government through education policy and school reform. In order to do this, use is made of Gunter, H., D. Hall, and J. Bragg (2013. “Distributed Leadership: A Study in Knowledge Production.” Education Management, Administration and Leadership 41 (4): 555–580.) framework of distributed leadership in schools. The framework identifies functionally normative, functionally descriptive, critical and socially critical positions in the school leadership literature. The paper concludes by putting forward potential alternatives to the largely functional policy narratives and solutions of recent decades, which are based on a broader understanding of ‘the system’.