The Challenge of Multiage Primary Education in Public Education Buchkatalog

The book examines the development of multiage education in public education. Multiage education can be defined as children of different ages intentionally placed together for the purpose of enhanced education through a child-centred approach. The international and comparative cross national study involved three countries, Australia, Canada and the USA, which all introduced multiage education into the public education system in the 1990s, a period when the notion of multiage education became widely popular in the Western world. Findings revealed strikingly similar political intentions underpinning the introduction of multiage education in these three countries. The different educational effects of multiage education were highlighted in those societies, together with solutions that governments sought to address by its introductions were committed to maintaining economic stability, social order and cultural cohesion.