Lost Generation: New strategies for youth and education

(Paperback)

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Education faces its own credibility crunch as overschooling combines with undereducation to leave young people overqualified and underemployed. This book reveals what has gone wrong in schools, colleges and universities and how this relates to the changing relationship between young people, educational qualifications and employment in the early 21st century. Combining their experience across sectors, the authors present a comprehensive review of education and training from primary to postgraduate schools. Meeting the crisis in policy and theory, they suggest new pedagogical principles are needed to combine research with teaching to produce as well as reproduce knowledge through application, creation, experiment, scholarship and debate. This new pedagogy would both reclaim the expertise of teachers and enable students to find purpose in what they study. They advocate a new educational politics bringing together students and teachers in new conceptions of education and democracy as the only opportunity to break the impasse in education at all levels.

Reviews

'A book not to be ignored' Education Review
This is an unusual and thought-provoking book. It is aimed primarily at students and teachers but also for those involved with young people in any capacity. It is written in a clear, accessible and very lively style and draws on a wide range of sources: academic research, media reports, government documents and also evidence from some of the students the two authors have taught.' -- Higher Education Review
With wit and simplicity, insight and passion, Allen and Ainley illuminate how the promise of "education, education, education" has come to this miserable end - and what can be done to get us out of it.' Ken Jones, Head of Department of Education, Goldsmiths' College, University of London, UK
A thought provoking critique of the education system at a critical time for Britain's "lost generation" of young people.' Wes Streeting, President, National Union of Students (NUS), UK
Tired about being lied to over education and told, if you have a university degree, that "In a few years the majority of graduates will be doing as well as they always have" Want to know what's currently going on in schools and universities and why Want to know what can be done to transform the treadmill Then read Lost Generation. Now.' Danny Dorling, Professor of Human Geography, University of Sheffield, UK
'This is an intelligent, provocative and accessible book. It makes sense of the nonsense that passes for contemporary education policy and importantly puts education policy into the context of global economics. Its arguments are sophisticated and compelling and above all timely. Allen and Ainley's book is the sort of education policy analysis that speaks to the experience of education policy - the experience of teachers, learners, and parents. It brings sense and insight to the anxieties, frustrations and dilemmas of those inside policy and with careful discussion and calm argument it looks for what can be saved from the current crisis in what it means to be educated.' Stephen Ball, Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education, Institute of Education, University of London, UK
'One of the most difficult things to do, working as I do within the trade union movement and with education professionals, is to take a step back and look at the patterns that form over a period of many years. Patterns which are important, which drive delivery and resource, underpin the concept of education for children and adults and by default society as a whole. It can also be difficult sometimes to place the day to day struggle for funding, job security and quality where it should be, firmly within the context of our individual and collective experience as a country. This book does that.' Sally Hunt, General Secretary, University and College Union (UCU), UK
The book is engaging, punchy, well documented and carefully researched. * British Journal of Educational Studies *

Author Bio

Martin Allen is a writer/ researcher having completed a PhD at the Open University. He is a part-time teacher in a comprehensive school in West London and an active member of the National Union of Teachers. Patrick Ainley is Professor of Training and Education at the University of Greenwich School of Education and Training, UK. He has published widely on education and training.