New publications

A selection of Shakespeare’s plays are presented as short stories made accessible to children. The 20 stories begin with The Tempest, which explores themes of magic, power and reconciliation, and ends with Pericles, Prince of Tyre, an exotic play of love, loss and family ties. The selection includes 12 romances and comedies and six tragedies. Adapted from publisher's description.

Life in Schools features excerpts from the author's best-selling work, Cries from the Corridor: The New Suburban Ghetto. The text invites discussion of current social problems and offers a theoretical framework for formulating potential solutions. It also includes a new discussion of race and class, a chapter on the social construction of whiteness, and a new chapter that challenges current domestic and foreign policies of the current government in the USA and their impact on American public schooling. Adapted from publisher's description.

Beginning teachers often have many questions regarding school culture and principals' expectations. From First-Year to First-Rate: Principals Guiding Beginning Teachers helps principals to respond to new teachers' concerns and integrate them into the school culture. The book provides ideas for initial orientation, strategies for measuring program success, and a number of practical applications for the classroom. Adapted from publisher's description.

This revised third edition integrates updated references, new findings and modern theories, presenting readers with a thorough and complete introduction to phonetics and phonology. There is detailed attention to articulatory and acoustic phonetics and the foundations of phonological analysis, new material on the latest findings in speech production studies, greater coverage of prosody, expanded coverage of phonology, including Optimality Theory, and sections on L1 and L2 acquisition and sociolectal variation. Adapted from publisher's description.

The study has examined and documented the curriculum, organisational and school–community partnership developments in P–12 schools and has assessed their impact on student learning. P–12 schools, especially in regional and rural communities, have made a significant contribution in a range of areas, including student learning, curriculum planning and organisation, staff employment and leadership/management. Unified education provision within a community results in stronger relationships being built between the school and its community. Furthermore, it enables education providers to support young people through their entire schooling. However, the study found that P–12 schools have struggled to develop and identify themselves as schools different from stand-alone primary and secondary schools. It will take a significant policy and operational shift to create a P–12 culture, curriculum and approach. Adapted from report. See also commentary in The Age 26 May 2008.

The report presents the results of an online survey of 1,277 nine- to 17-year-old students, another online survey of 1,039 parents and also telephone interviews with 250 school district leaders who make decisions on Internet policy. Among other findings, students report that education is one of the most common topics of conversation on the social networking scene. Almost 60 per cent of students who use social networking talk about education topics online and more than 50 per cent talk specifically about schoolwork. Adapted from report.