This is an account of two journeys made by the author. The first is ethnographic and involves his encounters with teachers and families in an English ex-mining town in the late 1980s. It is about the different cultural realities they experience and the significant problems that parents, pupils and teachers have in communicating with each other about their children's educational needs. The second involves an epistemological method for understanding the processes taking place during the author's first journey and works toward a practical and process-oriented theory of social reality.

This book will prove useful to those involved in relationship difficulties between schools and communities by helping to make sense of those relationships and identifying ways of working toward more common ground.

Another theme is that we cannot meaningfully detach our experiences from how we make sense of the social world that surrounds us. Consequently, appropriate elements from the author's personal life are woven into the narrative. Making Sense of Schools and Community Divisions attempts to involve readers in the evolution of ideas, for the same reason.

First-time author Dr. Ron Collier based this book on a manuscript he completed in 2001. He found himself referring frequently to the manuscript in his work as a research consultant for mental health services. Collier grew up in a seaside town in Devon and now lives in a small village in Nottinghamshire, England.

Publisher's website: http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/MakingSenseOfSchoolsAndCommunityDivisions.html