production of male–female dualisms in school settings. OthersectionsofthebookaddresstheCurriculum (classic essays by Bernstein and by Apple), the Teacher—thecrisesinteacheridentity(PeterWoods andBobJeffrey)andteachersdoingtheir‘economic’ work (Smyth and Shacklock), and Students and Classrooms, a section which contains two analyses of schools, families and academically able students (by Sally Power et al.) and Andrew Pollard’s rethinking of the ‘sociology of learning in primary schools’. In some ways, part four of the book was (for me) the high theory point, with Ball and Carlos Torres writing on ‘regulation’, analysing in different ways how the political rules and identities of educational systems are changing. Overall,thistextisaddressingissuesthataregoing tobediscussedinthenextdecade.Itisabitlocal(all those English and American examples), but the text addresses important themes of wider significance with steady attention. One assumes this is politically incorrect: no spin, no ducking and weaving and—in addition—all this inconclusive thinking, all this theory chatter. This text is not going to be useful for policy makers, unless they like reading difficult things and thinking difficult thoughts. If they do, they will find it very rewarding. Robert Cowen Institute of Education, University of London, Bedford Way, WC1 H 0AL London, UK E-mail address: R.Cowen@ioe.ac.uk doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2004.11.003 Louise Moran, Greville Rumble (Eds.), Vocational EducationandTrainingthroughOpenandDistance Learning, Routledge Falmer and the Common- wealth of Learning, London, ISBN 0-415-34524-3, 2004(238pp.+xiii). DavidAtchoarena,PaulEsquieu,PrivateTechnical and Vocational Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: Provision Patterns and Policy Issues, International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO, Paris,ISBN92-803-1217-0,2002(240pp.). David Atchoarena, Andre Delluc, Revisiting TechnicalandVocationalEducationinSub-Sahar- an Africa, International Institute for Educational Planning, UNESCO, Paris, ISBN 92-803-1224-3, 2002(355pp.+xv). Three books on vocational education and training. ThefirstisthefifthbookintheCommonwealthof Learning’s ‘‘World Review of Distance Education and Open Learning’’. In 13 chapters, the book brings together 26 contributors, consisting of both practitioners and academics and, impressively, in- cludes a good number of authors from the ‘South’. As the introduction acknowledges, defining vocational education and training (VET) is very difficult. However, this does lead to one of the book’s weaknesses: a tendency for programmes to beincludedasexamplesofVETwhenitisfarfrom obvious that this is how most would understand them. All three examples of cross-national colla- boration given in the first section of the book are really about developing professionals. This is not to deny the potential value of such programmes. However,itwouldhavebeenimportantforatleast one chapter to address such issues in the VET heartland of intermediate skills development. Thisweaknessisaddressedfarmoreexplicitlyin the single country chapters of part two. These chapters (on Canada, Australia, the Pacific Island states and South Africa) are interesting, not least for their range of developmental contexts, although the Anglophone bias is unfortunate. Moreseriously,thereistoolittlesenseofacritical perspective to be found. Globalisation, the im- portance of skills and distance/open learning, and the appropriateness of policies and practices are largelytakenasbothgivenandpositive,inspiteof the obvious need for caution in regard of each. Partthreedoesmakeforamorecriticalread,asit looks at institutional and policy frameworks. The book provides some interesting accounts of initiatives and some attempts to locate these comparatively and within their own settings. The ARTICLE IN PRESS Book reviews / International Journal of Educational Development 25 (2005) 584–588 586