This book uses research and personal stories from university lecturers to explore pedagogical strategies that illuminate how students’ minds can be ‘switched on’ in order to unlock their extraordinary potential. It presents diverse ways to create inspiring learning environments, in chapters written by internationally respected experts in the broad field of the social sciences. Each author illustrates how – through their unique teaching philosophies and practices – they seek to enhance students’ experiences and promote their critical thinking, learning and development. The respective chapters provide conceptual arguments, personal insights and practical examples from a broad range of classrooms, demonstrating various ways in which students’ sociological imagination can be brought to life. As such, the book is both practical and theoretical, and is primarily aimed at educators working in both higher and further education institutions who wish to develop their understanding of classroom pedagogy as well as gain practical ideas for teaching and learning in the social sciences.

Imagination and creative teaching approaches are increasingly important across all higher education disciplines, not just the arts. Investigating the role of imagination in teaching and learning in non-arts disciplines, this book argues that a lack of clarity about what imagination looks like in higher education impedes teachers in fostering their students’ creativity. Fostering Imagination in Higher Education tells four ethnographic stories from physics, history, finance and pharmaceutical science courses, analytically observing the strategies educators use to encourage their students’ imagination, and detailing how students experience learning when it is focussed on engaging their imagination. The highly original study is framed by Ricoeur’s work on different forms of imagination (reproductive and productive or generative). It links imaginative thinking to cognitive science and philosophy, in particular the work of Clark, Dennett and Polanyi, and to the mediating role of disciplinary concepts and social-cultural practices. The author’s discussion of models, graphs, strategies and artefacts as tools for taking learners’ thinking forward has much to offer understandings of pedagogy in higher education. Students in these case studies learned to create themselves as knowledge producers and professionals. It positioned them to experience actively the constructed nature of the knowledge and processes they were learning to use – and the continuing potential of knowledge to be remade in the future. This is what makes imaginative thinking elemental to the goals of higher education.

This volume contributes to the advancement of comparative education in the world, more specifically in expanding understandings of the discourse of comparative education vis-à-vis educational transformation. Throughout the text, three critical elements that reflect comparative education as an open, inconclusive discourse come up: (1) There is sufficient pedagogical space for dissonance. It is always possible to compare one’s own authenticity with the epistemological position others hold dear and argue for. (2) The contributions in this book should not be read as absolute pieces of writing as that would undermine the flexible nature of education. It is important to point out that the opinions of the authors are temporary moments of attachment to persuasive claims. However, these claims are not cast in stone as new views continue to emerge from epistemological (re)positioning. (3) Our own reading of the book corroborates our interest in comparative education as a continuous discourse in the making. The contributions of scholars at the third symposium organized by WCCES provided a platform for them to pursue their knowledge interests. In addition, these interests have and will or ought never to be homogenous for that would be incommensurate with a defensible practice of comparative education.

Updated to reflect recent global developments, the second edition of Globalization: A Basic Text presents an up-to-date introduction to major trends and topics relating to globalization studies. Features updates and revisions in its accessible introduction to key theories and major topics in globalization Includes an enhanced emphasis on issues relating to global governance, emerging technology, global flows of people, human trafficking, global justice movements, and global environmental sustainability Utilizes a unique set of metaphors to introduce and explain the highly complex nature of globalization in an engaging and understandable manner Offers an interdisciplinary approach to globalization by drawing from fields that include sociology, global political economy, political science, international relations, geography, and anthropology Written by an internationally recognized and experienced author team

Discover how to enthuse ordinary citizens to work together to effectively change their communities for the better.

Offering a fresh approach to new explorations of the reconfigurations of sociological thought, this book provides a mix of literature review, original theory and autobiographical material in order to understand formations of sociological knowledge.

Readings for Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult and Vocational Education is a unique portable library of exceptional readings drawing together seminal extracts and contemporary literature from international sources from books and journals to support both initial study and extended career-long professionalism for further, adult and vocational education practitioners. Introductions to each reading highlight the key issues explored and explain the status of classic works. This book, along with the core text and associated website, draw upon the work of Andrew Pollard, former Director of the TLRP, and the work of many years of accumulated understanding of generations of further, adult and vocational professionals. Readings for Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult and Vocational Education, the core text, Reflective Teaching in Further, Adult and Vocational Education, and the website, provide a fully integrated set of resources promoting the expertise of further, adult and vocational professionals. The associated website, www.reflectiveteaching.co.uk offers supplementary resources including reflective activities, research briefings and advice on further readings. It also features a glossary of educational terms, links to useful websites and showcases examples of excellent research and practice. This book forms part of the Reflective Teaching series, edited by Andrew Pollard and Amy Pollard, offering support for reflective practice in early, primary, secondary, further, vocational, university and adult sectors of education.

This title was first published in 2001. A detailed investigation of the practice of teaching sociology in a climate of increasing scrutiny from external stakeholders. The book explores an academic community accustomed to deconstructing the practices of other professional groups, but now facing a challenge to some of its own beliefs and assumptions.