ABSTRACT
It was with some trepidation and yet a sense of urgency that we decided to focus a book on the topic of schools in difficulty: trepidation because we did not wish it to be viewed as yet another opportunity to ‘bash the teachers’; urgency because school failure is a theme that dominates current educational discourse. Yet, to us, and many people with whom we come into contact, there is a lack of clarity over its definition and consequent misinterpretation of appropriate responses.
