How can we explain the study of education in terms of its social and historical development? And how has its survived as an academic subject in the changing world of the 21st century? The character and role of the study of education in the UK have always been contested and often challenged, so what are the underlying tensions that have served to shape its growth?

While key disciplines such as history, sociology, psychology and philosophy have been vital, education has been an unstable coalition of interests rather than a discipline in its own right. This has given rise to tensions that...