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From R.A. Butler's 1944 Act through the debate over comprehensives in the 1960s to the 1988 Education Reform Act, Brian Simon chronicles the major events in education over the past 50 years.
The fourth and final in the "Studies in History of Education in England" this volume examines the changes and developments in the British education system from the Second World War to the eve of the millennium. Education has always been a battlefield and never more so than in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century. Simon argues that educational policy usually reflects the outcome of a struggle between progressives who see reform as a first step towards social change, and conservatives who prefer a stratified system which reflects existing social divisions. It documents the changes that took place as the result of these battles: it begins with the 1944 Education Act and the massive extension of educational opportunity that took place in the postwar period; it then deals with the subsequent prolonged debates about comprehensive education, and other measures of liberalisation during the 1960s and 1970s; and it ends with the years of Conservative government, the 1980s and 1990s, when systematic attempts were made to reverse the advances that had been made during the earlier period. Winner of the History of Education Society Prize 1991-92 Winner of the Standing Conference for Studies in Education Prize 1991-92
This is the first book to offer an overview of the ways in which the sweeping social and economic changes of the modern period have impacted on the education system. Roy Lowe draws on estensive research to paint a vivid picture of the ways in which schools and universities were moulded by external events and of the part they played in promoting modernisation of society. The book explores some key themes: * the nature of the economic transformations taking place; * the growing awareness of gender issues; * the changing ethnic composition of modern Britain; * the bureaucratisation of society and the rise of a new politics. Exploring the links between these issues and educational provision, Lowe argues that the growing political significance of educational issues is largely explained by the critical part played by the education system in providing social and economic stability during these years of swift social change. Roy Lowe is Professor of Education at the University of Wales, Swansea.
This book is the work of the British Educational Research Association Assessment Policy Task Group who produced two of the four papers featured. They all address the reasons behind current UK assessment policy and how it might be improved.
This is the first full-length study of the life and career of Brian Simon (1915-2002), leading Marxist intellectual and historian of education in twentieth-century Britain. Using documentary sources that have only recently become publicly available, it reveals the remarkably broad range of Simon’s life as student, soldier and school teacher, Communist Party activist, and educational academic, campaigner and reformer. In a sympathetic biography that yet retains critical distance, the authors analyse Simon’s contribution to Marxism and the CP, explore the influence of both on his work as a historian of education and trace the significance of his Marxist beliefs, political associations and historical approach to the cause of educational reform. In so doing, they consider the full nature and limitations of Simon’s achievements in his struggle for education. Unlike many Marxist scholars he remained loyal to the CP in the 1950s, which damaged his reputation as a public intellectual. Nevertheless, his support for comprehensive education helped to promote egalitarian educational reforms in Britain, although he was later unable to provide sufficient resistance to the 1988 Education Reform Act and to a decline in the position of the comprehensive schools. In all this, the significance of Simon’s family, and especially his relationship with his wife Joan is to the fore. Joan and Brian forged a formidable 60-year partnership, in politics and the CP as well as in life, that lasted until Brian’s death in January 2002.
This book covers a crucial period for the development of state education in Britain; the advent of the comprehensive debate before and during the Second World War; the War years themselves and the 1944 Education Act; the post-War Labour Government; and Churchill's last government in a time of education expansion. From the 1960s, the focus shifted to questions of social deprivation and educational opportunities, secondary school selection, the debate on standards, Robbins and higher education, and the continuing theme of the dominance of public schools. The book is divided into four sections, which are then divided into chapters. Each chapter takes as its main reference point a key issue within the chronological framework of the book, e.g. resistance to secondary education for all, politics and textbooks, multilateral and technical schools, pressure groups and the 1944 Education Act, Churchill and the Conservatives. Much new light is thrown on the topics by the author's use of new material and he has made a valuable contribution to the politics of education.
A Social History of Educational Studies and Research examines the development of the study of education in the UK in its broader educational, social and political context since its early beginnings in the first part of the twentieth century. By providing a historical analysis of the contested growth of the field this book examines the significant contribution that has been made by institutions of higher education, journals, text books, conferences, centres, and academic societies. It discusses the problems and opportunities of the field, and its prospects for survival and adaptation to current changes in the decades ahead. The work draws on documentary sources, social network analysis, and interviews with leading figures from across the field. This book highlights international influences on the development of educational studies and research in the UK, its role in the growing internationalisation of the field as a whole, and also comparisons and contrasts with the nature of the field elsewhere. It relates the development to the wider social, political and economic changes affecting higher education in general and educational studies and research in particular. It addresses the historical development of disciplines in higher education institutions and the nature, extent and limitations of interdisciplinarity. A Social History of Educational Studies and Research discuss the problems and opportunities facing the study of education today, and its prospects of adapting to changes in the decades ahead. It is a distinctive and original analysis of educational studies and research that provides the first comprehensive study of its type.
The history of education is a contested field of study, and has represented a site of struggle for the past century of its development. It is highly relevant to an understanding of broader issues in history, education and society, and yet has often been regarded as being merely peripheral rather than central to them. Over the years the history of education has passed through a number of approaches, more recently engaging with a different areas such as curriculum, teaching and gender, although often losing sight of a common cause. In this book McCulloch contextualizes the struggle for educational history, explaining and making suggestions for the future on a number of topics, including: finding a set of common causes for the field as a whole engaging more effectively with social sciences and humanities while maintaining historical integrity forming a rationale of missions and goals for the field defining the overall content of the subject, its priorities and agendas and reassessing the relevance of educational history to current educational and social issues. Throughout this book the origins of unresolved debates and tensions about the nature of the field of history of education are discussed and key examples are analysed to present a new view of future development. The Struggle for the History of Education demonstrates the key changes and continuities in the field and its relationship with education, history and the social sciences over the past century. It also reveals how the history of education can build on an enhanced sense of its own past, and the common and integrating mission that makes it distinctive, interesting and important for a wide range of scholars from different backgrounds.
Provides the reader with an impressive selection of articles on the history of education from a broad base, including a new introduction from the editor.
The 1944 Education Act was a crucial piece of British legislation - one of the most important this century. It was passed against a background of war and growing popular demand for social reform. It provided a framework for the education service which remained largely intact for almost fifty years. Since 1988, however, with the introduction of a National Curriculum and competition between schools, the workings of the Act have been largely dismantled. In The Making of the 1944 Education Act, Michael Barber presents a lively evaluation of the Act - its background, passage and effect - fifty years after it was introduced. He looks briefly at the frustrated attempts at reform between the wars and how the upheaval of World War II created the right conditions for successful legislation. The book then follows the passage of reform and quotes liberally from contemporary sources such as the Times Educational Supplement and Hansard to illustrate its narrative. It is a fascinating history of educational policy, and of British culture and politics towards the end of the war.
