In this groundbreaking text, Youdell and Lindley bring together cutting-edge research from the fields of biology and social science to explore the complex interactions between the diverse processes which impact on education and learning.

Transforming the way we think about our students, our classrooms, teaching and learning, Biosocial Education draws on advances in genetics and metabolomics, epigenetics, biochemistry and neuroscience, to illustrate how new understandings of how bodies function can and must inform educational theory, policy and everyday pedagogical practices. Offering detailed insight into new findings in these areas and providing a compelling account of both the implications and limits of this new-found knowledge, the text confronts the mechanisms of interaction between multiple biological and social factors, and explores how educators might mobilize these 'biosocial' influences to enhance learning and enable each child to attain educational success.

By seeking out transdisciplinary and multi-factor answers to the question of how education works and how children learn, this book lays the foundations for a step-change in the way we approach learning. It is an essential read for researchers, teachers and practitioners involved in educational policy and practice at any level.

About the Author

Deborah Youdell is Professor of Sociology of Education at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Martin R. Lindley is Senior Lecturer in Human Biology at Loughborough University, UK.

Reviews

"This book takes us into uncharted terrain - exploring embodiment, what it means to 'optimise human potential', 'the body-brain-environment person'. It challenges readers to learn, in a cautious, reflexive way, about how a scholarly marriage of the social and biological sciences can reshape what we know about education. An impressive tour de force by Deborah Youdell and Martin Lindley that displays their extraordinary encyclopaedic knowledge and imaginative rendering of biosocial education as a new field of research. The book brings readers to the forefront of contemporary thinking about what it is to be human and to learn."

Professor Madeleine Arnot, University of Cambridge, UK.

"This book responds to the urgent need for a new vocabulary of the biosocial: emerging in the complex and manifold encounters between a historically situated, critical-affirmative sociology and the new biosciences. Without this new biosocial approach educators, policymakers, and interdisciplinary researchers will find themselves increasingly at loss in their decision-making for future educational policies, practices or research endeavors."

Hillevi Lenz Taguchi, Professor of Education and Child and Youth Studies in the Department of Child and Youth Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden.

Book Information
ISBN 9780415787109
Author Deborah Youdell
Format Paperback
Page Count 174
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 298g