Books by Julian Stern

This book provides an optimistic account of the value and role of schooling. The book tackles and rejects the various large-scale 'functional' theories of schooling which continue to dominate current debates and policies, such as schooling supporting employment and the economy, or developing citizenship.

This book provides an optimistic account of the value and role of schooling. The book tackles and rejects the various large-scale 'functional' theories of schooling which continue to dominate current debates and policies, such as schooling supporting employment and the economy, or developing citizenship.

Jan experiences loneliness. In this illustrated guide, he explains what loneliness is, how it can affect his daily life at home and school and what others can do to help. It is an ideal way to start conversations about loneliness with children aged 7+ and also includes advice on how best to support a child who is lonely.

This is a book of conversations with researchers working across Europe, the USA and Africa. It aims to illuminate the lived reality of educational research on a wide variety of topics, including family life in rural South Africa, support for self-harming students in the UK, character development in the USA and Korea, educational leadership in the UK and China, philosophical analysis of education policy, and much more. The book is for and about researchers and is built around a set of conversations with the author - a fellow researcher. Researchers work at the frontiers of our knowledge and understanding of the world, and frontiers can be dangerous places. How are the researchers' personal qualities - virtues such as courage, honesty and kindness - tested and exemplified in their work? The conversations presented here explore the experience of research and ask what qualities are needed, or wished for, in order to successfully face its challenges. There are many books that include lists of what to do and what not to do when carrying out research. Here, in contrast, we find out what really happens and why - and what it takes to keep going.

Analysing loneliness and solitude in schools and exploring how to deal with them is a vital task. In recent research for the author's Spirit of the School project, a number of pupils, teachers and headteachers described times when they felt lonely and times when they felt the need for healthy solitude. The causes of loneliness are numerous and its consequences have a significant unrecognised impact on education. How do schools deal with people when they are lonely, and how can they overcome loneliness? How can they create opportunities for healthy solitude, a welcome alternative to loneliness? Schools can sometimes try to include people by being intensely social, but end up making them feel even more excluded. A school that teaches solitude well and helps individuals deal with loneliness can be called an 'enstatic' school: a school in which people are comfortable within themselves. The objective of this book - the first comprehensive study of the subject - is to help us all understand loneliness and solitude and thereby to reinvigorate debates on personal, character and values education.

Aiming to explain why homework is important, this text also offers ways to help teachers set interesting, effective and well-differentiated homework. It includes a look at how parents can support the educational progress of their children, and how everyone can make the best use of their time.