This title was first published in 2000: Effective service provisions for young people are often said to be the key to Community Safety planning yet research frequently shows young people as over-controlled yet under-protected. Taking up this dilemma, this work draws upon a large survey of young people's attitudes towards the opportunities facing them and the communities in which they live. The book explores many aspects of young people's lives that adult society finds so disconcerting or threatening or which agency service providers find so difficult to address. The results of these surveys are contrasted with surveys amongst key agency personnel - social services, education, housing, police and the youth service - developing contrasting perspectives on "young people's needs". These findings are then further contrasted with a survey of adult community reactions, revealing markedly different levels of tolerance and intolerance. Discussion of the research findings is situated within a critical review of existing youth diversion and community safety policy initiatives which, by listening to young people and resisting the "demonization" of the young, attempts to take a fresh look at the contemporary "youth question".


Teachable Moments

by Peter Woods and Bob Jeffrey

Published 1 February 1996
Creative teaching is an art form - aesthetic, intuitive and expressive. The recent proliferation of new educational policies and the related increase in tensions and dilemmas facing schools, combined with the growing demand for a wider range of skills and knowledge among children mean that there is an even greater need for creative teaching than before the National Curriculum. This book addresses this need by: exploring the features of creative teaching with a focus on the day to day practice of primary teachers; showing how teachers use emotion, create atmosphere and stimulate imagination to enhance their teaching; examining the ways in which teachers have managed the National Curriculum and developed a new professional discourse in response to government pressures; This book is a sequel to Creative Teachers in Primary Schools (Open University Press 1995) and builds upon this work to provide new insights into the art of teaching.

Changing Schools

by Lynda Measor and Peter Woods

Published 15 October 1984

Changing schools at 11 or 12+ is a critical, often traumatic event in a pupil's career. Earlier studies had looked at this transitional stage from the schools' point of view, in the light of institutional aims and objectives. Originally published in 1984, this richly detailed and readable study looks at it from the pupils' point of view: it illustrates their perceptions of the transfer, their anxieties and their experiences.

The book is the result of a research project, in which children transferring from a typical middle school to a typical comprehensive in a Midlands town were observed over a period of eighteen months. The authors reveal various ways in which children adjust to a large, more complex school organisation, to new forms of discipline and authority, and new demands in school work. They emphasise the significance of teenage culture during this period, and identify an important area of interplay between school culture and sub-culture. They pay special attention to gender identities, and the ways in which these affect pupils' responses to different subjects in the curriculum.

Finally, they consider the theoretical and policy implications of their survey, and make positive recommendations for improving school and classroom practice at both primary and secondary level.


Is creative teaching still possible in English schools? Can teachers maintain and promote their own interests and beliefs as well as deliver a prescribed National Curriculum? This book explores creative teachers' attempts to pursue their brand of teaching despite the changes. Peter Woods has discovered a range of strategies and adaptations to this end among such teachers, including resisting change which runs counter to their own values; appropriating the National Curriculum within their own ethos; enhancing their role through the use of others; and enriching their work through the National Curriculum to provide quality learning experiences. If all else fails, such teachers remove themselves from the system and take their creativity elsewhere. A strong theme of self-determination runs through these experiences. While acknowledging hard realities, the book is ultimately optimistic, and a tribute to the dedication and inspiration of primary teachers. The book makes an important contribution to educational theory, showing a range of responses to intensification as well as providing many detailed examples of collaborative research methods.