Apologies for cross-posting.

Please find information below on some newly published titles that are available from NIACE (National Institute of Adult Continuing Education). www.niace.org.uk

The books are each focused on different issues surrounding adult education, including new research and good practice books on adult literacy education, and creative writing, a thought-provoking book about the part science education plays in ecological citizenship, an accessible good practice book looking at how to build a successful learning community, based on the inspirational story of Blackburn with Darwin, as well as a discussion paper looking at the importance of providing a broad curriculum for adults, which is particularly timely, in light of the funding issues concerning adult education at present. 

If you would like more information about them, or any of NIACE's publications, please do not hesitate in contacting me.

Keeping the options open
The importance of providing a broad curriculum for adults
Veronica McGivney 
ISBN: 1 86201 243 1
£8.95

There are fears that the need to meet Government priorities and targets is leading to a narrowing of the curriculum for adults. A sharp distinction is being made between learning that is deemed to lead to educational progression and develop skills for employability, and learning that is assumed to be pursued for its own sake, for self-development or as a leisure activity. This paper discusses, with illustrations, how different types of curricula for adults, undertaken for a range of intentions, can lead to the kinds of outcomes that meet current policy targets. It looks explicitly at the role of a broad curriculum range in widening participation to under-represented groups, especially those involved in Skills for Life and family learning.


Priced at £8.95, Keeping the options open is available from NIACE, 21 De Montfort Street, Leicester, LE1 7GE 
Tel 0116 204 4216
Fax 0116 204 4276
<http://www.niace.org.uk/publications/K/KeepingOptions.htm> 
*Please note that orders cannot be invoiced for under £35.00*


Insights from research and practice
A handbook for adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL practitioners

Edited by Margaret Herrington and Alex Kendall

ISBN: 1 86201 202 4 (Paperback), £28.95
ISBN: 1 86201 244 X (Hardback), £ 74.95
Available June 2005, 690pp

Insights from research and practice draws together the key issues and debates that have emerged in the field of adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL over the past 20 years.

Featuring a careful selection of articles from the Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL) journal, this text offers a rich and authoritative mix of voices, critically examining theories, methods, policies and practices.

The work is organised thematically, relating the key debates in areas such as assessment and accreditation, curriculum content and process, management of provision and the nature of literacy and numeracy.

This book is essential reading for those who need to keep abreast of current policy issues, while those new to the field will find invaluable first-hand accounts from leading researchers and from practitioners wrestling with the challenges of tertiary education.

As well as providing a link with the tradition of democratic practice in literacy and numeracy education, the book also looks forward, inviting practitioners to adopt a longitudinal approach to research in practice.

Written by the teachers, managers, students and researchers who comprise the RAPAL network, Insights from research and practice is the indispensable guide to the live issues in current policy and practice.

Insights from research and practice is available from NIACE, 21 De Montfort Street, Leicester, LE1 7GE 
Tel 0116 204 4216
Fax 0116 204 4276
http://www.niace.org.uk/Publications/I/Insights.htm
*Please note that orders cannot be invoiced for under £35.00*

Outside the classroom
Researching literacy with adult learners

Edited by Ellayne Fowler and Jane Mace
ISBN: 1 86201 223 7
July 2005
£16.95

There is a large body of research that shows literacy is a matter of context and social relationships - rather than a skills-deficient model of inadequacy and lack.

Drawing on this research, Outside the classroom explores how, by using the social practice view of literacy, teachers and policy makers can look beyond the skills focus of the classroom to see something of the networks and environments in which learners operate.

Expounding the links between theory and practice, the authors set out both the key concepts central to the social practice view of literacy and the crucial aspects of teaching practice.  Each is illustrated by a related group of portraits, researched and written by teachers of adult literacy in partnership with learners, offering a rich and varied collage of literacy lives.  The authors bring these together in the concluding section, signalling further directions for teaching and research.

For anyone interested in the social realities of reading and writing, this is an invaluable resource for professional development, participatory research and teaching practice in adult literacy education. 

Priced at £16.95, Outside the Classroom is available from NIACE, 21 De Montfort Street, Leicester, LE1 7GE 
Tel 0116 204 4216
Fax 0116 204 4276
http://www.niace.org.uk/publications/O/outsideclassroom.htm
*Please note that orders cannot be invoiced for under £35.00*


Creative writing
Education, culture and community

Rebecca O'Rourke
ISBN: 1 86201 161 3
July 2005
£18.95

Creative writing: Education, culture and community offers the first conceptual account of creative writing, one of the most popular - and controversial - educational subjects in Britain today.  

O'Rourke, a long-established member of the creative writing community, provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to the issues and tensions associated with creative writing and puts them in the context of current policy debates. These debates include how best to manage, teach and learn creative writing; how to value and evaluate these activities; and the interface between arts activity and educational inclusiveness.  

This compelling and lucid text argues that the current dominance of educational values and processes in cultural policy is problematic for advocates of cultural action as a catalyst for radical social change.  The book offers both a detailed ethnographic study and a careful historical account of creative writing in cultural policy and educational provision, and provides a contextual framework that highlights the contribution of adult education to cultural change and community development.


Priced at £18.95, Creative Writing is available from NIACE, 21 De Montfort Street, Leicester, LE1 7GE 
Tel 0116 204 4216
Fax 0116 204 4276
<http://www.niace.org.uk/Publications/C/Creative.htm> 
*Please note that orders cannot be invoiced for under £35.00*

Dreams, dialogues and desires
Building a learning community in Blackburn with Darwen

David McNulty
ISBN: 1 86201 205 9
June 2005
£9.95

Blackburn with Darwen Local Education Authority has won international recognition and numerous awards for its work in widening participation in learning and building a thriving learning community.  

Dreams, dialogues and desires offers a stimulating account of the creative approach used by Blackburn with Darwen to establish a learning community. In a passionately and, at times, humourously written account of his time there, David McNulty provides a valuable insight into how ideas develop and become reality; how to reach those learners previously disinterested or excluded; how to push limits and extend and question boundaries and in Blackburn with Darwen's case, dramatically increase participation in adult and community learning. More importantly, Dreams, dialogues and desires illustrates how vital it is to talk and listen effectively to the community to ensure you provide an adult learning service that is responsive and relevant to its needs.  

Priced at £9.95, Dreams, dialogues and desires is available from NIACE, 21 De Montfort Street, Leicester, LE1 7GE 
Tel 0116 204 4216
Fax 0116 204 4276
http://www.niace.org.uk/Publications/D/Dreams.htm
*Please note that orders cannot be invoiced for under £35.00*

Science in the Countryside
Lifelong Learning for ecological citizenship
Margaret Pilkington 
ISBN: 1 86201 213 X
July 2005
£18.95
Here is an irresistible case for scientific rigour and dedicated adult education as essential components of an informed and effective democracy. 

Margaret Pilkington's description of the first-class, long-running ecological studies of woodlands and meadows carried out by her university continuing education students shows the power of science education rooted in the countryside. Learning through fieldwork leads to a better understanding of how science works, and to the acquisition of skills needed for biodiversity conservation in local habitats.

This book is addressed to teachers in adult education, scientists and non-scientists: they will be engaged by the ways in which difficult concepts and complex skills are explained by an extraordinary teacher and mastered by her impressive students. It is also addressed to science educators in universities and colleges: they will be reassured and even excited by its examples of how mature students master and apply the principles of experimental work. And it is addressed to everyone interested in conservation, the environment and biodiversity: they will be interested by the fieldwork, the habitats and the experimental results. They should be inspired by its description of the creation of scores of knowledgeable, articulate and active ecological citizens.

Priced at £18.95, Science in the countryside is available from NIACE, 21 De Montfort Street, Leicester, LE1 7GE 
Tel 0116 204 4216
Fax 0116 204 4276
http://www.niace.org.uk/publications/S/ScienceCountryside.htm
*Please note that orders cannot be invoiced for under £35.00*

Best Wishes
Elisabeth

Elisabeth Prince
Publications Marketing Assistant

NIACE
Renaissance House
20 Princess Road West
Leicester
LE1 6TP

Tel: +44 (0)116 204 2832
Fax: +44 (0)116 204 4262
email: [log in to unmask]