Syed (2020) We are invited to imagine: using a literary text to encourage cross-cultural dialogue about citizenship,

This article presents results from an international collaboration between college students and pre-service teachers in Norway and the UK. This research is part of a large, international project exploring and developing the interrelationship between mobile technology and teachers' perceptions of teaching and learning. Data was collected for this study through an on-line survey of 37 pre-service teachers followed by six semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The data analysis revealed the themes of collaboration, authenticity and professional learning through the use of mobile technology in the data. The collaboration enabled the use of the affordances of mobile technology to enhance the pre-service teachers' professional learning and the data suggested that this enhanced their emergent conceptions of teaching and learning.

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There is growing concern across Advanced-Level (A-Level) providers and universities that many students are experiencing high levels of stress and physical illness, related to academic and/or social aspects of student life. The impact of academic pressure to 'succeed' is increasingly evident. There is an urgent need to provide appropriate student support. Two studies are reported which investigate students' experiences and perceptions of studying Advanced-Levels in England. By gaining insight into this period of study and the challenges encountered by students, the implications for enhancing student resilience can be better understood. Study One involved participants at four sixth forms in secondary schools in England (n = 805). Study Two comprised a larger-scale study of nine institutions offering A-Level education (secondary school, Sixth Form College and College of Further Education), with 2,040 Year 12 and Year 13 students participating in the study. In both studies, students completed a bespoke questionnaire which focused on transition to/from A-Level education and student perceptions of resilience. The findings suggest that much more needs to be done in supporting the mental well-being and resilience of students whilst studying for A-Levels. Indeed, the experience of studying for A-Levels was evidently stressful and anxiety-inducing for many of the student participants. This stage of postsecondary education could be seen as the culmination of all the pressures inherent in the present performativity culture of schools. The transition from A-Level study to university can be a very challenging one for a substantial minority of students.

Another important contribution of the book is the section on children's religious and moral development. In this section Gates discusses his own and other's empirical research on children's understandings of religious ideas and themes. He sets this research in the context of wider work on children's conceptual and moral development including that of Piaget and Kohlberg. As a researcher who has focused on children's and young people's understandings of key ideas related to democratic citizenship I found much of interest here both in terms of the findings of the research and also approaches to conducting qualitative conversations with children, including quite young ones, about complex ideas.This book has much to offer scholars, students and the public interested in RE, ME and various aspects of citizenship education. Gates writes in an accessible style and his descriptions of curricular transformations, particularly since the mid-1940s, touch on themes relevant to all these areas including diversity, inclusion, social cohesion and children's intellectual and moral development. The key weakness of the book is its repetitive nature. Because it is a collection of work written at different times for different venues the same themes and arguments appear over and over again often excessively. Some editorial work and revision in this area would make for a stronger book. That being said, I do think there is much here of interest.