This reflection does not pretend to be a scientific survey of curriculum trends but is, as the title suggests, a personal reminiscence of governorship across different phases of education, with snippets about the curriculum that my memory recalls.

The author is a long-time advocate inside the Labour Party for ending selective education and the 11-plus. She outlines how Labour Party frontbenchers routinely ignore or deflect calls from Party members to stand up for comprehensive education in both word and deed. As UKIP, whose policy is to extend selective education more widely, rises in the…

This article argues that comprehensive reorganisation was not a one-off policy reform but a complex, bottom-up campaign for equity and fairness in education, with varied consequences and outcomes. Recent battles over student fees, free schools and academies show that the quest for democratic education does not lead to a permanent achievement but…

This article is an edited version of a talk written for delivery at a conference organized to celebrate 50 years of Kidbrooke Comprehensive School with the overall theme "The Comprehensive Ideal: Taking It Beyond the Individual School." Having honored the pioneering work at Kidbrooke, Clyde Chitty then takes a close look at three key issues: the…

One of the most significant educational reforms in Western Europe during the last two decades has been the attempt to create a system of comprehensive secondary schools. The traditional approach to secondary education was characterized by a highly stratified formal system in which students were allocated to academic, commercial, or vocational…

The similarities among comprehensive high schools in the United States promote equity and social integration rather than educational excellence. Increased specialization would encourage competition for students and provide schools with a sense of mission, two factors critical to developing strong faculties committed to improving education. (PGD)

Major socioeconomic trends, including the growth of service industries, increased urbanization, and the enhanced importance of leisure time, have brought about the evolution of what might be called the full-service community college. This institution, which culminates the development of the American community college toward its community-based…

Tracing the development of comprehensive schools in relation to working class protests against separate schools for different social classes, the author argues that comprehensives may yet fail because lower-class children continue to be patronized by teachers who feel they cannot learn. (Part of a theme issue on comprehensive education in…

After 20 years of experience, comprehensive education in Belgium is characterized by many compromises. Pedagogically, positive results have been achieved. Curricular and structural reforms have been largely successful. However, too much is being expected of it as a lever for social change, and the system may fail as a result. (MSE)

With the change to comprehensive schools in Sweden completed, the author considers how education will be restructured in the future both at the compulsory and the post-compulsory levels. (SJL)

Early in the 20th century, vocational education was a concern of educators in the United States as schools struggled to meet labor force needs during the shift from an agrarian to an industrial economic base. A 1914 Congress-authorized commission studied whether federal aid to vocational education was warranted. Charles Prosser, a student of…

Schools and business must unite to make all the changes needed to ensure the success of all children. Social change, particularly the increase in single-parent families, has resulted in more children being born at risk of school failure. Most early childhood education reform initiatives have been piecemeal and have lacked a true understanding of…

Using as an example the development of the comprehensive school concept in the Netherlands, this paper explores the strategy for educational innovation in a centralized national educational system, the role of educational research and evaluation in educational innovation, the impact of research on policy-making, and the strengths and weaknesses of…