Illustrates how, contrary to popular belief, child centred teaching can be positive, supportive and guiding. The author shows how child-centred teachers can successfully combine the best elements from traditional and modern practices.

Ciaran Sugrue is Lecturer in Education at St Patrick's College, Dublin, where he teaches courses to undergraduate and postgraduate students in teaching and the curriculum, schools as organizations, educational leadership and qualitative research methods. He is a former primary teacher and has worked in the primary schools inspectorate

Acknowledgments, Introduction, 1. Complexities of Teaching: Child-centred Perspectives, 2. Substance, Setting and Method, 3. Practitioners' Teaching Intentions, 4. Practitioners' Teaching Constructions, 5. A Major Case Study: Participant, Context and Substance, 6. Theme One: Language, The Leitmotiv of Helen's Practice, 7. Theme Two: Helen's Conversational Style, 8. Theme Three: Scaffolding and Shepherding, 9. Reconstructing Teaching Traditions: Child-centred Perspectives, Appendix, Bibliography, Index