Living on the Edge

John Smyth is Visiting Professor of Education and Social Justice at Huddersfield Centre for Research into Education and Society, University of Huddersfield (UK). He is Emeritus Research Professor of Education, Federation University Australia, and Emeritus Professor of Education, Flinders University of South Australia. He is an elected fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, a former Senior Fulbright Research scholar and has received several awards from the American Educational Research Association for his research. His most recent books include The Toxic University: Zombie Leadership, Academic Rock Stars and Neoliberal Ideology (2017), The Socially Just School: Making Space for Youth to Speak Back (2014) and Doing Critical Educational Research: A Conversation with the Research of John Smyth (Peter Lang, 2014). His research interests are in critical policy sociology, social justice and ethnographic forms of research. Terry Wrigley is Visiting Professor at Northumbria University, England, and editor of the international journal Improving Schools. His books include The Power to Learn (2000), Schools of Hope (2003), Another School Is Possible (2006), Changing Schools: Alternative Ways to Make a World of Difference (2012) and Social Justice Re-examined (2012). His research interests are in child poverty, inequality and school policy. Peter McInerney is an independent scholar, former high school teacher and former Research Associate at Federation University Australia. He has authored several books with John Smyth including Becoming Educated: Yong People’s Narratives of Disadvantage, Class, Place and Identity (Peter Lang, 2014), From Silent Witnesses to Active Agents: Student Voice in Re-engaging with Learning (Peter Lang, 2012), ‘Hanging in with Kids in Tough Times’: Engagement in Contexts of Educational Disadvantage in the Relational School (Peter Lang, 2010) and Teachers in the Middle: Reclaiming the Adolescent Years of Schooling (Peter Lang, 2007). His research interests are in forms of school reform that promote social justice.

Acknowledgments – Bob Lingard: Foreword: Putting Those ‘Living on the Edge’ at the Centre of Educational Policy and Practice – Preface for the Second Edition – Introduction: Living on the Edge: Rethinking Poverty, Class and Schooling – Making Sense of Class – Understanding Poverty in the Twenty-first Century – Material Poverty and ‘Problem’ Neighborhoods – Blaming Individuals and Blaming Their Genes – Speaking the Wrong Language – Aspirations and "Cultures of Poverty" – Neoliberal School Reform: Blaming Teachers, Blaming Schools – Improving Schools or Transforming Them: The Politics of Social Justice – Poor Kids Need Rich Teaching – "Live on the Edge…Be the Best You Can": An Australian Study of Student-Oriented Curriculum at Plainsville School – "This Is a Bit of a Life Saver for Me": Insights from Stepping Out, an Alternative Education Program for Students "Living on the Edge" in Regional Australia – Conclusion: Schools for Social Justice: Theories of Good Practice – References – Author Index – Subject Index.

“This book addresses what is now the central but unaddressed issue in education policy in developed societies—the abhorrent, debilitating and humiliating relationship between poverty and schooling. Smyth and Wrigley rigorously and painfully lay out this relationship and all its aspects and shame us all—policymakers most of all! This is a book that cannot, must not be ignored.”—Stephen Ball, Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education, Institute of Education, University of London