ABSTRACT
In this part we have brought together a collection of extracts which focus on the classroom context. To begin with, we have included an extract from Philip Jackson’s classic book Life in Classrooms, in which the sights and smells of the classroom are made both familiar and, through being brought to our attention, also strange. Why are classrooms as they are? Do they need to be that way? In whose interests do they seem to have evolved as they have? Should they be changed, and if so how? What constraints might there be on change? These are some of the issues which this part will begin to explore.
