In recent decades, the world of education has faced great changes with the introduction of new management cultures, the implementation of new institutional policies and the use of information and communication technologies for learning and teaching in diverse cultural settings. In addition, increasing immigration and population flows confront schools with new multicultural issues. These changes have required:

• A reorganisation of school contexts, personnel, management and institutional structures

• Reorientation to new policies and the establishment of new institutional relations with government bodies

• Constant updating of knowledge and skills with the pace of technological change

• Adaptation to changing multicultural contexts

Alongside these challenges, schools, government bodies and other educational institutions have had to make urgent strategic decisions with specific attention to:

• Understanding youth culture and family contexts in relation to technological innovation, multicultural contexts and institutional changes

• The problem of accommodation of new organisational practices, management regulations and relations with government bodies into culturally and socially specific contexts

• The problem of institutional relations among those who operate within educational contexts that are developing new organisational cultures (i.e. govt. bodies, headmasters, teachers, students and students' families)

• An up-to-date understanding of best practice and technological innovation in the use of information and communication technologies in relation to learning and teaching, youth and the locally specific economic environment

• The changing relations between schools and the broader social, economic and political contexts following the commercialisation, privatisation and partial decentralisation of the education system

To these ends, Eight & Eight offers the know-how of experts in the field who apply anthropological approaches and privilege research methodologies whereby theory and practice are constantly intertwined. These include techniques of Participant Research Action (PRA), structured and semi-structured interviewing and participant observation. In specific relation to issues of multiculturalism and interculturalism, Eight & Eight also offers the expertise of qualified anthropologists, teachers and educational researchers with knowledge and experience of different cultural backgrounds and contexts worldwide.

Sensitivity and understanding of cultural contexts are fundamental for the smooth implementation of educational change. That is why at Eight & Eight we offer anthropologically-informed consultancy on educational policy implementation, the application of information and communication technologies in teaching and learning and advice on institutional and organisational relations in school environments. Specifically, we offer:

• Anthropological analysis of institutional environments from government departments to schools and classrooms.

• Advice on national policy implementation in locally specific cultural and educational contexts.

• Consultancy on the implementation of information and communication technologies in schools aimed at better understandings of institutional and organisational cultures

• Individually commissioned research on specific client-defined projects

Those who can benefit most from our services include: ·

• Local education authorities
• Government policy-makers
• Individual schools
• Teachers' organisations and unions
• Youth and community organisations
• Businesses serving educational markets, particularly those relating to Information and Communication Technologies