Hope and Education: The Role of the Utopian Imagination - Softcover

Halpin, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415233682 ISBN 13: 9780415233682

Publisher: Routledge, 2002

Synopsis

This book is a rallying cry to teachers at a time when many in the profession feel profoundly pessimistic about their work and the future of education. In this uplifting book, David Halpin suggests ways of putting the hope back into education, exploring the value of and need for utopian thinking in discussions of the purpose of education and school policy.
David Halpin does not attempt to predict the future of schooling. Rather, he discusses the attitude educators should adopt about its reform and the prospect of educational change. He suggests that educators need to adopt a militant optimism of the will, applying aspects of the utopian imagination through which hopefulness can be brought to bear on educational situations.
This important book will stimulate fresh thinking about school reform. It will be interesting reading for those studying for Masters and Doctoral degrees in education, and academics, researchers and policy makers working in the same field.

About this title

Review:

Times Educational Supplement Book of the Week, February 2003

Synopsis:

Set within the doom and gloom currently surrounding education, this text argues that we need utopias in education today. The central argument of the book is that utopias have the capacity to project a special degree of optimism - a measure of hope that will act as a motivation to action as well as providing direction to it. The author contends that we need to adopt "utopian realism", which is a form of utopianism which seeks to combine the capacity to be experimental and innovative with a sensitive appreciation of the limits and potentialities for social change.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0415233682
• ISBN 13: 9780415233682
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160