Prelims

Half Title Page

HOW SOCIAL SCIENCE CAN HELP US MAKE BETTER CHOICES

Optimal Rationality in Action

Title Page

HOW SOCIAL SCIENCE CAN HELP US MAKE BETTER CHOICES

Optimal Rationality in Action

BY

CHRIS BROWN

School of Education and Childhood Studies, University of Portsmouth, UK

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United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2018

Copyright © 2018 Chris Brown

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No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the text, illustrations or advertisements. The opinions expressed in these chapters are not necessarily those of the Author or the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78754-356-0 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78754-353-9 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78754-355-3 (Epub)

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Dedication

Dedicated to the memory of Helen Brown and her 103 wonderful years and to Vincenza Holland a true stalwart in my life.

About the Author

Dr. Chris Brown is Professor of Education at the School of Education and Childhood Studies, University of Portsmouth. Chris has a long-standing interest on how evidence can and should but often doesn’t aid education policy and practice. To that end he has authored four books (including Achieving Evidence-Informed Policy and Practice in Education: Evidenced (2017) for Emerald), several papers and has presented and keynoted on the subject at a number of international conferences in Europe, Asia and North and South America. Chris’s other principal research interest is centered on the use of semiotic theory and analysis to find better ways to understand the complex problems we often face. This is his second book focusing on this area (following on from Scenes, Semiotics and the New Real: Exploring the Value of Originality and Difference (2015) for Palgrave Macmillan).

In 2015, Chris was awarded the American Educational Research Association ‘Emerging Scholar’ award (Education Change SIG). The award is presented to an individual who, within the first eight years of their career as an educational scholar, has demonstrated a strong record of original and significant scholarship related to educational change. Chris was also awarded the 2016 AERA Excellence in Research to Practice award and the 2016 UCEA Jeffrey V. Bennett Outstanding International Research award.

Acknowledgements

Realising this book would not have been possible without the commitment and support of Kim Chadwick, Emerald publisher extraordinaire. Thank you for your faith in me. Thanks also to Ruth Luzmore for engaging with me to discuss and flesh out many of the ideas. Finally, thanks, as ever, to my family for their continued patience as I demand ‘just five more minutes to get this sentence finished’ after saying exactly the same thing half an hour before.