This text examines what actually happens, as well as what ought to happen, in the quest for best practice in education. It investigates the experiences of educators and teachers, in their continuous quest to improve the quality of learning and teaching provision. It provides case studies from a range of different educational settings in the UK and Australia which reveal how educational leaders and practitioners are handling new priorities and programmes for change in the late 1990s.

Author Biography

Judith Bell has worked as a university lecturer, head of department and vice principal in colleges of further education, senior counsellor and course team writer at the Open University and as one of Her Majesty's Inspectors (twice), specialising in further and higher education. She has held honorary fellowships at the Universities of Lancaster, Warwick and Sheffield and now works as a writer and education consultant. She has written or edited seven books, mainly concerned with research methods and education management, including Doing Your Research Project Open University Press. Bernard T. Harrison is Professor and Dean of Education at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia, having held the same positions in the University of Sheffield. He has published widely on topics relating to the teaching of English, leadership and the management of educational institutions. His recent books include The Literate Imagination (1994) and (with Judith Bell) Vision and Values in Managing Education (1995).