The School Years presents a lively collection of essays on key issues affecting young people in the school setting. This new edition takes into account the major social changes which have occurred since 1979 (when the book was first published), changes which have had a direct impact on education and young people. The first contributors, five of whom are new since the first edition, take an entirely new and up-to-date approach to current controversial issues. Poverty and unemployment, training of post 16 year-olds, the problems of sexual and emotional abuse, the phenomenon of AIDS, issues of gender, race, and equal opportunities, increasing divorce rates - all these have affected the lives of children and adolescents. In addition, in the UK and many other countries, education reforms have altered the organisation and ethos of the school setting, inevitably creating even greater challenges for the students.
The contributors explore the fundamental questions about human development in the school setting, focusing on such aspects as the learning of gender roles, the origin of the concept of self, the role of the peer group, the development of morality, the causes of delinquency, and the relation between home and school. The School Years covers the current controversial issues to do with the socialization of young people and also provides a broad theoretical perspective on the subject. It will be an essential book for all those concerned with adolescence and education.