240 pages
215mm x 140mm
ISBN-10: 1 85856 284 8
ISBN-13: 978 185856 284 1
Published with Allen & Unwin
June 2002

'I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in education, equity and disadvantage. Its readability and its deep understanding of the realities of schools and communities will make it appealing to teachers and school administrators as well as to students and researchers. It provides precisely the combination of realism and optimism that is essential to any progress.' - British Journal of Educational Studies

Examining primary and secondary schools in disadvantaged areas in a post-industrial ('rustbelt') city, Schooling the Rustbelt Kids makes a new contribution to the debate about inequality in schooling. It provides concrete evidence that typical government policies in the Western world are not working, but are instead helping to create a permanent underclass.

Pat Thomson outlines an alternative approach to policy, which involves the whole of government and builds on the initiatives that have proved to make a real difference to educational outcomes. She draws attention to the influence of local geography - interventions which work in one school may not work in others. Schools are coloured by particular neighbourhoods, affected by national and global events and by complex networks of social relations. This book shows how to respond appropriately to these influences so that schools can be positively transformed.

This book is essential reading for headteachers in inner cities and the surrounding 'rustbelt' and for policy makers at local and national level.

Pat Thomson is Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of South Australia and is known for her innovative work as principal of disadvantaged schools.