Teaching: Notes from the Front Line

Our current education system is overloaded with amendments, additions and adjustments which have been designed to keep an outdated model in the air. But it is crashing. And as it comes down, we see the battle of blame begin. It is time to take our vocation back, to learn to trust ourselves and each other and, crucially, to take control of the direction of education and policy.

We have allowed powerful institutions to manipulate the fear of parents and teachers to the extent that neither can see how to proceed without being told what to think. Covering education policy, PISA testing, Ofsted, exams, pedagogy and much more, this book explores how the so-called accountability and quality systems in our country have been used to straight-jacket teachers into compliance, even when flying in the face of emerging knowledge and understanding about learning.

This is a narrative of hope, of how the system could be different. It offers tales from within the classroom of learning, of hope, of laughter, of gentle subversion. This is a call to arms for a pedagogical revolution. Will you answer it?

; Our current education system is overloaded with amendments, additions and adjustments which have been designed to keep an outdated model in the air. But it is crashing. And as it comes down, we see the battle of blame begin.

Debra Kidd taught for 23 years in primary, secondary and higher education settings.She is the author of two previous books, Teaching: Notes from the Front Line and Becoming Mobius: The Complex Matter of Education, but her latest project, Uncharted Territories: Adventures in Learning, with Hywel Roberts is her favourite because it represents where her heart is - in the classroom. Debra is the co-founder and organiser of Northern Rocks - one of the largest teaching and learning conferences in the UK. She also has a doctorate in education and believes more than anything else that the secret to great teaching is to make it

Since establishing Independent Thinking 25 years ago, Ian Gilbert has made a name for himself across the world as a highly original writer, editor, speaker, practitioner and thinker and is someone who the IB World magazine has referred to as one of the world's leading educational visionaries.The author of several books, and the editor of many more, Ian is known by thousands of teachers and young people across the world for his award-winning Thunks books. Thunks grew out of Ian's work with Philosophy for Children (P4C), and are beguiling yet deceptively powerful little philosophical questions that he has created to make children's - as well as their teachers' - brains hurt.Ian's growing collection of bestselling books has a more serious side too, without ever losing sight of his trademark wit and straight-talking style. The Little Book of Bereavement for Schools, born from personal family experience, is finding a home in schools across the world, and The Working Class - a massive collaborative effort he instigated and edited - is making a genuine difference to the lives of young people from some of the poorest backgrounds.A unique writer and editor, there is no other voice like Ian Gilbert's in education today.