216 pages
244 x 170mm
ISBN-10: 1 85856 352 6
ISBN-13: 978 1 85856 352 7
April 2006

'… provides a good mix of theory and practice…,including planning and development processes right up to the evaluation of initiative outcomes.' - British Journal of Educational Technology

To educate children to become active global citizens who want to achieve sustainable lifestyles requires school effectiveness and improvement models to be replaced with process models: with how schools educate. A focus on learning through doing and on action-focused education features significantly in the agenda for the United Nations' decade of education for sustainable development that begins in 2005. It is also in keeping with the values of self-evaluation and school development.

Each section in this book integrates theoretical, contextual and personal knowledge within its own distinctive focus. The first section offers overviews of school development, whole school approaches and self-evaluation. The chapters in the second section present detailed case studies of European schools that are developing a whole school approach in England, the Netherlands, Greece and Malta. Each describes work in progress, and critical analysis of each reveals the processes that support school development and holistic approaches in the school. The final section indicates ways of promoting school development through whole school approaches, and suggests relevant resources.

This book is a major outcome of a seven-year European Commission funded project on professional development for pre-service and in-service teachers designed with the UN agenda in mind. It is for practising teachers and other professionals, and will be essential reading for trainee teachers and teachers studying courses in whole school development and education for sustainable development.

Tony Shallcross and John Robinson teach at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK.

Paul Pace is based at the University of Malta

Arjen Wals is at the University of Wageningen, the Netherlands.