In this volume the author discusses the influence of France from the Norman invasion to the late 1960s. French thought and ideas are examined and more tangible evidence is also given of the widespread and often unnoticed influence that France has exerted on English education.

This book provides a comprehensive survey of the successes and failures of education and training in the Khrushchev and Breshnev years. The author gives an objective assessment of the accessibility of the main types of institution, of the contents of courses and of Soviet attempts to marry the functioning of their education system to their perceived economic and social needs. In addition the book has many useful and original features: For ease of analysis it summarises in diagram form complex statistics which are not usually brought together for so long a time period. It provides a...

This book addresses the question What should be taught in schools and why? . The book begins by stressing the way in which such a question should be approached and goes on to offer a comprehensive and stringent critique of a variety of principles for the selection of curriculum content, with particularly important sections on deschooling and the hidden culture curriculum theory. The final chapter contains the positive curricular recommendations, with virtually every candidate for curriculum time examined and assessed in respect of its educational worth.

When first published this book was one of the first collections of empirical research in the area of the knowledge transmitted in schools and the responses of students to it. It includes studies of the histories of particular school subjects and of how the knowledge they embody is presented in the classroom. Attention is also given to the effects of gender stereotypes among teachers and pupils, both on pupils selection of courses to study and on their reactions to particular subjects in the classroom. The other major topic in this collection is the way external examinations shape the...

If the curriculum can be defined as a selection from the culture of society, the central question then becomes who selects . This volume answers this question, reviewing various aspects of the curriculum and its planning. For many years the control of the curriculum was uncontroversial. In the 1970s this situation changed: teachers were increasingly criticised for having too much power; the Department of Education was suspected of wanting more control and local education authorities felt they should be more involved in curriculum planning. In reviewing some of the reasons for these...

Teachers are, and always have been seen as agents of respectability in our society, but today this role is far less easily defined than it once was. Now, for most teachers, the whats and hows of moral behaviour, guidance and instruction have become debatable issues. In this book the author gives us a readable and original sociological consideration of the teaching oughts and ought-nots which, by providing a valuable analytic framework within which to view moral education, should help the thinking of those who are concerned with some of the most intractable problems of contemporary...

Beginning with descriptions of the ways in which children make sense of their experience and the world, such as fantasy, stories and games, Egan constructs his argument that constituting this foundational layer are sets of cultural sense-making capacities, reflected in oral cultures throughout the world. Egan sees education as the acquisition of these sets of sense-making capacities, available in our culture, and his goal is to conceptualize primary education in a way that over comes the dichotomy between progressivisim and traditionalism, attending both the needs of the individual child...

Based on interviews with key actors in the policy-making process, this book maps the changes in education policy and policy making in the Thatcherite decade. The focus of the book is the 1988 Education Reform Act, its origins, purposes and effects, and it looks behind the scenes at the priorities of the politicians, civil servants and government advisers who were influential in making changes. Using direct quotations from senior civil servants and former secretaries of state it provides a fascinating insight into the way in which policy is made. The book focuses on real-life political...

Assessment is a key area of interest and debate in education. Its increased use by governments as a powerful means of influencing educational practice are now features of the educational scene worldwide. This volume was the first major international review of such developments and it explores the impact of assessment on all areas of education, from teaching skills to policy-making.

The contributors take a global perspective to spotlight the common problems facing teachers and students, policy-makers and politicians through the world as they seek to reconcile issues of equity and...