This major text for Education Studies students provides a critical account of key issues in education today. The text features: (1) A critical analysis of key issues in Education Studies to encourage students' thinking about education in the broadest terms; (2) Themed sections with introductions to link the issues discussed in each chapter; (3) Use of specific examples of educational diversity to illustrate how concerns such as ethnicity, gender and class operate in educational institutions; and (4) An examination of educational issues as they relate to other phases of educational provision, such as home schooling and universities. "Education Studies: Issues and Critical Perspectives" is a text for Education Studies students. It is also of value to students on QTS courses and students and professionals in areas such as sociology, childhood studies, community studies and education policy. The table of contents is divided into four sections. The first section, Inside the School, includes an introduction, then the first six chapters of the book: (1) Early Years Education Mixed Messages and Conflicts; (2) Learning-by-Tutoring: The Penicillin of Education; (3) The Politics of the National Numeracy and Literacy Strategies; (4) Shaping Pedagogy from Popular Psychological Ideas; (5) Inclusion in the UK Challenges and Practical Solutions; and (6) Progressive Education versus the Audit Culture: The Case of Summerhill and the HMI. The second section of the book, Policy, Politics & Education, contains the next group of chapters following an introduction: (7) Education, Policy, Ideology and Impact in England: A Century of Change?; (8) England: Educating for the Twenty First Century; (9) What Do We Really Know from School Improvement and Effectiveness Research?; (10) Away with All Teachers: The Cultural Politics of Home Schooling; and (11) Resisting Change: Universities, Postal Codes and Targets. The third section of the book, Education at the Margins, presents an introduction followed by the next five chapters: (12) Race, Empire and Education: Unpacking Multiculturalism; (13) Forced Migration, Refugee Children and Their Education; (14) Education of Looked after Children: Who Cares?; (15) Women and State Schools: Britain, 1870 to Present Day; and (16) Life Long Learning, Just a Slogan? The Reality for Older Women. The remaining section of the book, Global Education: Global Issues, offers an introduction, and the final chapters: (17) Teacher Education: Innovations and Reform in Developing Contexts; (18) New Labour, Globalisation and Social Justice: The Role of Education; (19) Education for Sustainability; and (20) New Geographies of Power in Education: The Politics of Rescaling and Its Contradictions. An afterword concludes this book.