Understanding Schools and Schooling provides students with the knowledge about school policy and process that they need in order to address and respond to current trends and discourses in critical, well-informed ways that will enhance their teaching and job satisfaction.The book presents issues, questions and dilemmas and invites the reader to find their own answers through guided activities, discussion with colleagues and further reading. The book provides a philosophical context for teachers' developing classroom practice and empowers them to participate fully in local and national debate about the nature, purposes and future of compulsory education in the UK and elsewhere.