Urban classroom culture: Realities, dilemmas, responses

The aim of this book is to generate honest, informed debate about the complexities and realities of urban secondary comprehensive school culture. The book does not pretend to propose answers to issues which are not susceptible to easy solutions. However, it is driven by a confidence that experienced teachers, through collective analysis and discussion, are capable of developing workable responses to rapid cultural change in classrooms and wider society. Contemporary classrooms are a major focus of public debate, and have been subject to intense central government regulation in England since 1988. In recent times Government has sought to direct both curriculum and pedagogy, supporting this with an extensive programme of assessment and inspection, linked to an ideal of teaching in which the teacher has a monopoly of knowledge in class; and acts as the centre and arbiter of acceptable modes of communication. Within this scenario, perceived failings of urban comprehensive secondary schools have been routinely attributed, by politicians and media outlets, to bad teaching and bad teachers. However, surprisingly little of this popular opinion has been based on any kind of systematic analysis and description of what urban secondary school classroom life is actually like, based on naturally occurring data. In addition, little account has been taken of the effects of some of the changes stimulated by the new globalization including the ubiquity of digital culture and digital devices, the virtually universal dominance of popular culture and the increase in population mobility and ethnic plurality.