Struggles for Equity in Education ― The Selected Works of Mel Ainscow

Spanning Mel Ainscow’s accomplished 30 year international career in education, the texts in this book trace his efforts to find ways of fostering more equitable forms of education. This has involved a series of struggles as he has experimented with different approaches - in a variety of contexts - to find new possibilities for responding to learner diversity. Over the years this has related to a variety of headline themes, starting from special education, through to integration, on to inclusive education, and then, more recently, educational equity.

The readings have been chosen to illustrate the changes that have occurred in Ainscow’s thinking and practices and a short introduction is provided for each chapter that is intended to help readers to understand the significance of what is presented and how this relates to other chapters in the book. The writings in this text reinforce the idea that the promotion of equity in schools is essentially a social process that has to occur within particular contexts.

Mel Ainscow is Professor of Education and Co-director of the Centre for Equity in Education at the University of Manchester, and Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. In the Queen’s 2012 New Year honours list he was made a CBE for his services to education. Currently he is leading Schools Challenge Cymru, the Welsh Government’s multi-million pound flagship programme to accelerate the rate of improvement across the country’s schools.