This paper is an attempt to define the concept of togetherness from two different angles. Initially, it focuses on how togetherness can be seen in relation to students' participation. A central argument is that more focus on togetherness in school can be of great importance for the motivation. Secondly, the article states that we develop our…

Teachers in Estonia are working in a tense environment of conflicting expectations which, on the one hand, involves a neoliberal approach to standards and, on the other, the humanistic values of education and well-being of students. The purpose of the study was to identify the factors of school climate which ensure both the job satisfaction of…

There is a faltering sense of democracy in America's current political climate due to polarized opinions about leadership's decisions and antagonistic political parties. John Dewey (1916) proposed that education is the place to foster democracy, as schools can provide a platform to actively engage students in authentic democratic experiences that…

'Alternative education' encompasses a diversity of schooling types and organizations. "International Perspectives on Alternative Education" explores alternative forms of schooling from the position of academics, policy workers, and those working and studying in such schools across the world. The first-hand accounts by those working and…

The Danish free school tradition has entailed a large degree of associational freedom for non-governmental schools, religious as well as non-religious. Until the late 1990s, the non-governmental schools were under no strict ideological or pedagogical limitations; they could recruit teachers and students according to their own value base, and were…

What should be the continuing role of founders in schools supporting self-directed learning? To answer this, the founders' views of two North American schools for self-directed learners will be compared. One school is exam-focused and private; the other is, test-free and public. The founders of both schools have comparable beliefs regarding the…

"Homeschooling," "deschooling," and "unschooling" are commonly used terms in the alternative-education world, but each lacks specificity. In this article, the author describes what he discovered during several visits to North Star. Known officially as North Star: Self-Directed Learning for Teens, it is not as…

Two radical teachers set up a "free school" in Washington, D. C. to offer an alternative education to disaffected, rebellious, bored, middle-class high school students. Some of their ideas work, some of them didn't. Their story is told in this book from the separate perspectives of the two teachers. In their first-hand account of the school and…

Background: Phonological awareness tests are known to be amongst the best predictors of literacy; however their predictive validity alongside current school screening practice (baseline assessment, pupil background data) and to National Curricular outcome measures is unknown. Aim: We explored the validity of phonological awareness and orthographic…

Vignettes from the Albany Free School demonstrate that successful learning does not depend solely on pedagogical principles. The key to education is learning how to learn; once kids know that, all learning becomes enjoyable. Because learning is a by-product of teaching, which is a function of relationship, cultivating good teacher-student…

THE DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATION OF THE PRIVATELY FINANCED FREE SCHOOLS OF PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY, VIRGINIA, ARE DESCRIBED IN THIS BOOK OF REMINISCENCES. THE SCHOOLS WERE FOUNDED BECAUSE THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS IN THE COUNTY HAD REFUSED TO COLLECT TAXES TO SUPPORT DESEGREGATED SCHOOLS. IN A 3-WEEK PERIOD 100 TEACHERS HAD TO BE FOUND FOR THE MORE THAN…

A research bibliography, one of a series from the Education Library at the University of Michigan, lists over one hundred books and six periodicals on the subject of non-traditional education. The materials, appropriate for use by educators, parents, and community groups, date from 1967 through 1972. Free, open, and non-graded alternative schools…