Composing Diverse Identities Narrative Inquiries into the Interwoven Lives of Children And Teachers

In a climate of increasing emphasis on testing, measurable outcomes, competition and efficiency, the real lives of children and their teachers are often neglected, or are too messy and intricate to legislate and quantify. As such, curricula are designed without including the very people that compose the identities of schools. Clandinin here takes issue with this tendency, bringing together a collection of narratives from seven writers who spent a year in an urban school, exploring the experiences and contributions of children, families, teachers and administrators. These stories show us an alternative way of attending to what counts in schools, with a shift away from the school as a business model towards an idea of schools as places to engage citizenship, and to attend to the wholeness of people's lives. Articulating the complex ethical dilemmas and issues that face people in schools every day, this fascinating study of school life under the microscope raises new questions about who and what education is for.Clandinin, D. Jean is the author of 'Composing Diverse Identities Narrative Inquiries into the Interwoven Lives of Children And Teachers', published 2006 under ISBN 9780415397476 and ISBN 0415397472.