This article reflects on the two subsequent articles--the first by Mike Davies and the second by David Taylor--that provide exhilarating challenges to the diminishing and demeaning status quo of current education policy and practice in England.

This article examines the career of the educationalist, Conservative politician and published writer on education and politics, Rhodes Boyson (1925-2012). As an educationalist, Boyson established Highbury Grove Boys' Comprehensive School in Islington, North London: An inner-city school which was antithetical to the wave of progressivism in the…

This article is based on an inaugural professorial lecture given by Jane Martin at the University of Birmingham on 3 December 2014. It grew out of research in progress on the life and work of the leading educational reformer, Caroline Benn, wife of one of the most prominent and controversial post-war socialists in Britain, Tony Benn.

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…

Behind the thin veil of the Conservative regime's rationale of deficit reduction hides the final demolition of public comprehensive education and Raymond Williams's more expansive long revolution unfolding over a century of creating a democratic state that affords opportunity, voice and justice for all. Restoring the politics of a pre-war or…

One of the most remarkable developments in American education in the past half century has been the creation and rapid growth of the nation's community colleges. Built on the curricular pillars of vocational education, transfer programs, and community education, community colleges today are considered the "engines of statewide economic…

Three different "logics"--that of the internal strategies of the institutions, the economic pressures of the socialist market economy and the political policies of the state drive the development of a university. The dynamic interaction and coexistence of the three logics has determined the transformation models of teacher-education or…

This article uses events in May 1985 surrounding the de-selection of the Conservative chair of the Wiltshire Education Committee and her role in the campaign for comprehensive education in Salisbury, England, to pose questions about the representation of women who championed causes deemed to be progressive and to raise issues about how gender…

In 1964-65 a teacher at London's Kidbrooke School gave a speech that appeared critical of the Labour government's nascent comprehensivization policy. A "Times" editorial based on her comments influenced the tone and content of the crucial parliamentary debate of January 1965, which continues to have implications for the organization of…

The French ideal of comprehensive secondary education was based on a notion of equal educational opportunity through standardized schooling that was becoming politically outmoded as it was being implemented. Plans for truly comprehensive lower secondary education have not been very significant, and the comprehensive schools for students from 11-15…

Attempts to understand the implications for education of an apparent paradox of the welfare state: a new culture of education has developed involving both individual autonomy and continuing attachment to public provision of education to ensure that autonomy. Compares England and Scotland to illustrate the complexity of the political debate. (DSK)

Examines the tensions created between public demands for curriculum changes and the schools' internal needs. Reports a case study on the implementation of a core curriculum in an English comprehensive school. Focuses on the work of the curriculum committee and the role of the principal. Assesses successes and failures of the project. (RW)

After 40 years of efforts, the first bill authorizing the establishment of community colleges in the state of Ohio was finally adopted in June 1961. Before and after the passage of the act, attempts had been made to create a comprehensive community college system in Ohio, but all of them failed. A 1970 study by the Ohio Board of Regents (OBOR),…