This paper uses Anderson's notion of 'imagined community' to argue that how people think about the publicness of their school system provides insight into the functioning and flourishing of communities, societies and nations. We focus on the privatisation of public schooling in Alberta, Canada and Northern England to highlight tensions between the…

Income inequality has been rising in Britain for two decades and wealth is also more unequally distributed now than when New Labour first came to power. Various factors have contributed to this, including education which, according to the PISA 2006 data, has more unequal outcomes in the UK than in all but 2 of the 29 tested countries. Comparative…

In England, parents make "choices" (in reality, "preferences") for the state-maintained secondary schools they wish their child to attend. If there are more applicants than places, the school's published admissions criteria are used to give priority to applicants. This article examines how school composition in London varies by…

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)

This report examines the educational opportunities offered by specially funded comprehensive secondary schools established in Israeli development towns during the 1960s. The results of an analysis of the 1980-81 academic year budgets of 51 schools in 26 towns, and an examination of the schools' absorption of students and their holding power, are…