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The Taming of Education

Evaluating Contemporary Approaches to Learning and Teaching

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

Authors:
  1. Rob Creasy

    1. School of Psychological & Social Science, York St John University, York, United Kingdom

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  • Assesses contemporary approaches to education and teaching
  • Argues contemporary education needs to take more risks to ensure children develop critical thinking skills and the capacity for originality
  • Explores how a range of factors reduce the potential for creativity and originality in education

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Seeing Education as a Process

    • Rob Creasy
    Pages 1-9

  3. Education: Wicked or Tame?

    • Rob Creasy
    Pages 11-27

  4. Control Over Teaching: Taming Teachers

    • Rob Creasy
    Pages 29-51

  5. Shaping the Landscape of Education

    • Rob Creasy
    Pages 53-78

  6. Where We Learn

    • Rob Creasy
    Pages 79-106

  7. Education as a Process: Assessment, Outcomes and Achievement

    • Rob Creasy
    Pages 107-129

  8. Taming Assessment in Higher Education

    • Rob Creasy
    Pages 131-155

  9. Where Are We Now?

    • Rob Creasy
    Pages 157-176

  10. Towards Wicked Education

    • Rob Creasy
    Pages 177-203

  11. Back Matter

    Pages 205-224
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Keywords

About this book

This book evaluates contemporary approaches to education, with a particular focus on the ways in which assessment shapes the educational experience and influences pupils and students. It adopts a critical approach, arguing that there is a need for students to develop critical thinking skills, be flexible and have the capacity for originality. Education has increasingly come to be seen as a process with qualifications as the output; however, as economies change, attaining advantage increasingly relies on creativity and originality. Unfortunately, in the quest to remove uncertainty from education, creativity and originality are often overlooked; and the result is that education is impoverished. Creasy argues here that there is no single factor that has shaped education and led to this situation; rather, developments within education can be seen as having been shaped by a range of forces such as neoliberalism, New Public Management, standardization and internationalization. This is not toclaim any deliberate undermining of education, but the cumulative effect is that education is less and less fit for purpose. Written for anyone involved in education, student, teacher or manager, this book draws upon Educations Studies, Sociology and Social Policy to offer a compelling critique of contemporary education.

Reviews

“This book challenges many of the current assumptions in education. Using the concepts of 'tame' and 'wicked' education, it takes an overarching view of the practice of education and shows that a great deal is mis-thought and mis-guided, resulting in the danger of supplying a standardized, safe and stultifying provision to students at all levels. Risk  is not a thing to be avoided, for it is at the core of the best of education, helping to promote creativity, originality, and student enthusiasm; its opposite not only depresses student enthusiasm, but the learning required for engaging with the emerging problems of a new world…a very welcome book which demonstrates that there is a real and urgent-needed alternative to much current thought and practice.” (Mike Bottery, Professor Emeritus, University of Hull, UK)

“Rob Creasy offers an insightful analysis of how notions of wicked education can be utilised to promote assessment practices that foster originality and creativity.In doing so he presents an analysis that has the potential to move us beyond the tame neo-liberalist educational discourses that presently dominant many education systems. Indeed, he shines a light on how wicked assessment can be employed to challenge this situation. The Taming of Education is an important educational text that will be informative for scholars, policy makers and educational practitioners.” (Paul H Smith, Associate Head of School, Quality Enhancement and Student Experience, Leeds Trinity University, UK)


Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Psychological & Social Science, York St John University, York, United Kingdom

    Rob Creasy

About the author

Rob Creasy is Subject Director in Social Science at York St John University, UK.

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