education in britain essay

Education System in England and Wales Today Essay

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Introduction

The education system in england and wales, effects of the british education division.

The education history of England and Wales involves a situation where the learning services were provided by churches, and only church schools existed. The principals and the teachers were supposed to be holy people, and the state met a high resistance in trying to providing education.

However, various constitutional and societal changes led to the role of providing education being adopted by the state and the establishment of public schools. Later a well-structured education system was established through the 1988 education reform act that introduced the national curriculum and its consequent examinations, financing of schools, among other reforms to improve the quality of education.

The education system in England is mainly under the supervision of the department of kids, family units, and schools in conjunction with the departments of innovation, training, and higher education. It’s the duty of the local authorities to execute policies on community education and national schools locally.

There are also been a number of independent schools that operate in the country since the establishment of the education system. The framework of Wales is almost similar to that of England except that England emphasizes studying few subjects with in-depth analysis. On the other hand, Wales emphasizes an education system where students study many subjects with a shallow understanding of the main concepts.

The England education framework comprises compulsory education for all the kids between 5 to 16 years old; the education is provided by the public, private, and home schools. The compulsory education usually closes on the very last Friday of June when the academic time ends, and the students become 16 years old. Compulsory schooling consists of primary and secondary education. The primary learning is usually offered in baby class and junior or a combination of the two and consists of four main stages, i.e., foundation, full-time foundation, key stage 1, and key stage 2.

On the other hand, secondary schooling consists of two chief stages, i.e., key stage 3 and key stage 4. The examination system is made of four main “key stage national curriculum” assessments where students get tested at various levels in the learning process. These tests include key stage 1 taken the second year after joining the school, key stage 2 undertaken at the last part of the sixth year. In addition, the key stage 3 is undertaken by students at the last part of the ninth year, while the key stage 4 is administered through the tenth and the eleventh, which is integrated as the GCSE is a compulsory exam for all students.

Then the students can join a further college schooling which is the sixth form of learning mandatory in some schools where they attain an Advanced Level GCE. The A-Level is made of six units in each subject where in the first year the students undertake three subjects, and after passing, they can choose to continue with the other three subjects to attain the A-Level.

At the age of 18, students can join universities or institutions of higher education to attain bachelor’s degrees. Undergraduate learning is principally sponsored by the government except in private universities where students are self-sponsored. After attaining the bachelor’s degree, the willing students can continue to pursue the postgraduates degrees, which include the master’s and the doctorate degrees completed in one and three years, respectively. Most of the students are self-sponsored as the government only assists the financially needy students, and in very rare cases hence the admission to these degrees is a bit competitive.

In addition, the government offers adult schooling at all levels of education for the purposes of equipping the students with the general knowledge and skills of life and performing duties, e.g., access program. In terms of the cost charged at each educational level, the primary and the secondary education is free, while the sixth form, undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate degrees are charged differently as per their requirements and the institutions the student attends.

The British education system has subdivided into the state and the independent sectors of learning, where the learning services are provided by both the government and the private sectors of the economy. The divisions have both positive and negative effects; the positive effects include the education system becomes more competitive as both sides are committed to achieve better results and become the winners.

The state and the private schools fight to attain top positions in the main national examinations in order to get more students and get favors from the state; hence the competition created has improved the quality of education offered in both sectors. In addition, the competition has also spread even in extracurricular activities such as sports, and many students can identify their talents when still young.

The existence of only state schools had been accused of poor management and being strict in providing only the national curriculum. The existence of the independent sectors in Britain has seen other curriculums practiced in other countries being offered in the country; hence many students do not travel outside the UK to access these other curriculums. In addition, the private sector has started a forum where they offer the Britain curriculum to other countries by establishing branches or examination bodies that only provide the UK curriculum exams. This has reduced the cost of accessing other international curriculums as they are offered in other countries. However, the existence of two sectors has contributed to state schools finding their own sources of income and managing their resources to maintain the standards of education.

The negative effects include the creation of double standards in education where the rich students join the independent schools as their facilities outstand that of the state schools; hence they charge large amounts of fees only affordable by the rich. In addition, they are less strict in terms of discipline and performance as they are losing students considering the amount they pay for school maintenance. More so, the independent schools offer a wide range of curriculums, therefore, making these students better in terms of international competitiveness and access to opportunities.

On the other hand, the state schools remain for the middle and the lower classes of the working class who cannot afford private sector education. This creates a division in a society where there are schools for the poor and the rich hence the association of the two groups is difficult. More so, they offer a standard form of curriculum applicable to all state-owned schools hence limiting the students to only the locally created opportunities.

The disparity in terms of the resources and facilities available to the students makes the students in independent schools access many opportunities compared to those in state schools. For instance, private schools only admit the students and the staff that meet their standards. In addition, they charge a large number of fees in order to make all facilities available to both the students and the staff, making sure the needs of all students are met. They also spend most of their time, resources, and energy towards other extracurricular activities making the students their talents as they have all the necessary facilities at their disposal.

On the other hand, the state schools lack enough to provide all the necessary facilities in schools due to the fact that they cannot charge high fees in the name of luxury. Therefore, the state takes the responsibility of providing basic education; hence the students never access many opportunities. For instance, only a few identify their talents in extracurricular activities as not all the facilities are available. More so, the state schools admit all kinds of students without considering their personal information or background hence less discriminative and more just a factor that tends to push their performance down.

The state schools in providing higher education seem to maintain their high standards where students with low grades are only allowed to take degrees that are fewer adverse effects on human beings and society. For instance, the medicine and the engineering students are supposed to be students with very high grades due to the nature and complexity of the job responsibilities and the risks involved. Therefore they are supposed to be bright students who are good performers.

On the other hand, the independent schools are never strict on course offering in terms of the students’ performance or grades rather they are interested in the fees paid by the students, i.e., who can afford their services hence we end up having students dropping out of class when they are halfway or who fail in their careers due to lack of the relevant knowledge and skills. Hence, the independent schools are commercial as they are not state-sponsored like state schools.

David McDowall. Britain in close up, United Kingdom: Longman publisher, 2000.

Dent H.C. education in England and Wales, London: Hodder and Arnold H&S publisher, 1982.

John Oakland. British Civilization, Great Britain: Rout ledge publisher, 1998.

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Education system in UK – Cause & Effect

Introduction Education in the UK is devolved with each of the smaller countries within the UK. This means there are governments in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland that deal with education their own way. There are five stages of education in the UK, which include early years teaching, primary school, secondary school, Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE). In my cause and effect essay, I show the effect of school rules and rankings and graduation rates in the UK. Cause The UK is traditionally one of the highest ranked countries when it comes to education, but over recent years, their ranking against the world has stagnated a little, especially when it comes to PISA tests (Program for International Student Assessment).

Effect The UK education system is still good and ranked highly, but it has caused more people to consider teaching their children at home. There are a growing number of parents that are teaching their children at home in the UK. The numbers are still small in comparison to the number of children that attend school. Part of the reason that there are more children being taught at home is because there are now free and easy-to-use tools on the Internet that parents can use to teach their child a little easier than before. Cause It is compulsory for children to attend school from the age of four in Northern Ireland and five in the rest of the UK, and children are not allowed to leave school until the age of 16. The only way to avoid going to school is via home schooling, but a child must still complete a curriculum that is overseen by a tutor upon occasion. Effect It has become more difficult for students to miss school, and many have to attend school no matter what. However, thanks to the Internet, students are discovering that if they behave badly then they can be expelled. If they are not accepted into other schools, then their parents are forced to teach them from home. Cause The University and college system in the UK is truly top class, with many of the Universities and colleges having notoriety and esteem around the world. Graduation rates within UK colleges and Universities are very high, and any student in the UK can find funding in order to attend University apart from in special circumstances. Effect The UK stands in second place across Europe and in sixth place worldwide when higher education from Universities and colleges is counted in with the figures whilst ranking. There are so many students attending college and so many graduating that the UK world ranking and European ranking is very high. If graduation rates from colleges and Universities were not counted, then the UK is no longer second place in Europe when it comes to education rankings.

Conclusion The UK education system is clearly very good and of a very high standard, though some of their high rankings on the world stage are backed up by their very strong college system and even stronger University system, with the college system giving A-level qualifications and Universities giving degrees.

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British education system

An introduction to the british education system.

The education system in the UK is divided into four main parts, primary education, secondary education, further education and higher education.

The education system in the UK is also split into "key stages" which breaks down as follows:

Key Stage 1: 5 to 7 years old
Key Stage 2: 7 to 11 years old
Key Stage 3: 11 to 14 years old
Key Stage 4: 14 to 16 years old

UK primary education

Primary school education begins in the UK at age 5 and continues until age 11, comprising key stages one and two under the UK educational system.

Some primary schools are split up into Infant and Junior levels. These are usually separate schools on the same site. The infant age range (Key Stage 1) is from age 5 to 7. The Junior age range (Key Stage 2) is from age 7 to 11. The year groups at primary School level are:

Year R (Reception) (age 4 – 5) Year 1 (age 5 - 6) Year 2 (age 6 - 7) The year when SATs testing takes place for Key Stage 1 Year 3 (age 7 - 8) Year 4 (age 8 - 9) Year 5 (age 9 - 10) Year 6 (age 10 - 11) The year when SATs testing takes place for Key Stage 2

secondary school - years 7 and 8

Years 7 and 8 are the first two years of secondary school education in the UK. In some independent schools they are included in the Junior School, in others, they are part of the Senior School.

Under the UK school system, all students study English, Maths, Sciences, a Humanity and a Modern Language. Besides these subjects, each school has a list with optional subjects (Art, Music, Drama, Latin, Sport Science, Design Technology, Computer Science), and students may choose a few subjects that interest them.

In some schools, students sit the Common Entrance Exam in year 7. There are 3 examination sessions, in November, January and May/June. The transition from Junior to Senior School (from year 8 to year 9) may be conditioned upon the Common Entrance Exam results in those schools.

secondary school - year 9

Year 9 is a very important year in the British school system, as most of the students make the transition from Junior School to Senior School. It is also a very good foundation for the GCSE programme and it is an entry point to all schools.

Students study English, Maths, Sciences, Humanity and Languages. In addition, students choose a few subjects from the optional subject list offered by each school.

secondary education - years 10 and 11

GCSE programme

In the last two years of secondary education, which are called Year 10 and Year 11, starting at age 14, students prepare for GCSE exams that are taken after two years (General Certificate of Secondary Education).

In the UK school system, during the GCSE programme, students study between 9 and 12 subjects. Some of them are compulsory (English, Math, 2/3 Sciences, History/Geography, a Modern Language etc.), some are chosen by each student according to their abilities and preferences. At the end of the 2 year GCSE programme, following the examinations on each studied subject, students receive their GCSE Certificates.

The chosen subjects and the GCSE results are very important for their Further Studies (A-Level or IB) and for their University admission.

Intensive 1 year GCSE

Some schools offer a 1 Year GCSE programme in Year 11 for international students seeking a school education in the UK. These intensive, one year courses, are available for students aged 15 plus, with the appropriate academic level from their own country. Fewer subjects are studied (maximum 6).

The IGCSE programme ( International General Certificate of Secondary Education) prepare international students for A-Level and/or IB.

Students study between 5 and 7 subjects, English, Maths and Science being included. Each school has a list of available subjects for IGCSE students. At the end of Year 11, students take exams in each studied subject and receive IGCSE Certificates.

university preparation - years 12 and 13

A level study

In the UK school system, once a student reaches the age of 16, they can start a 2 year programme which leads to A (Advanced) level examinations. Students specialise in 3 or 4 subjects, that are usually relevant to the degree subject they wish to follow at university. A levels are state examinations and are recognised by all UK universities and by institutions worldwide.

At the end of Year 13, following the examinations in each subject, the students receive A level Certificates.

International Baccalaureate (IB)

Those who would like to study more than 3-4 subjects, may continue their studies in a broader number of subjects with the International Baccaularete Diploma Programme, offered by some independent schools.

During the IB, students study 6 subjects, 3 at higher level (HL) and 3 at standard level (SL). Each school offers different subjects at different study levels (HL/SL). The IB programme also includes a compulsory Core programme consisting of Theory of Knowledge (TOK), Extended Essay (EE) and Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS).

Students take written examinations on each subject at the end of their courses.

further education - vocational courses

group of students at university walking away

International students can either choose a state sixth form college or a college of further education as an alternative to private education. Both offer GCSE and A level courses for students from the age of 16. Colleges of further education also offer foundation and diploma courses. All colleges can prepare students for entry to a UK university or any university in the world. Bright World works with a number of state colleges in the UK which provide a multitude of vocational and academic courses. These courses can enable students to pursue their chosen career or to gain a place at a university of their choice.

The British school system also extends to BTEC courses which are designed for students who would like to develop practical knowledge and skills in a specific subject (Business, Psychology, Engineering, Sport, Art & Design) and find traditional exams challenging. Focussing on practical, skills-based learning, the BTEC students are assessed during the course. After each unit students are assessed through assignments, tasks or tests, and not at the end of the programme as it happens with GCSE or A-Level students.

university - foundation courses

From age 17, international students can opt to study one year foundation programmes, instead of A levels or IB. These courses lead to private examinations that are an alternative to A levels. Foundation courses at colleges are recognised by universities with whom they have partnerships.

Some universities also offer foundation courses that lead onto their own degree programmes.

Bright World has partnerships with a number of colleges and Pathway providers and can help place students into Foundation and Diploma courses in London and across the UK.

university - undergraduate study

In the UK, a British bachelors degree normally takes three years to complete and most are awarded at honours level. Examples of first degrees are: BA (Bachelor of Arts), BEng (Bachelor of Engineering), and BSc (Bachelor of Science).

State colleges offer some 2 year vocational diplomas that grant exemption from the first and sometimes second year of a degree programme. Some private tutorial colleges offer a one year diploma programme which is equivalent to year 1 of university. Students taking 1 year diplomas are awarded second year entry at some universities.

university - postgraduate study

Postgraduate courses in the UK education system are very intensive. This means that the courses are usually much shorter than in other countries. A master's degree typically takes 12 months to complete, for example an MA - Master of Arts and an MEng - Master of Engineering. An MBA (Master of Business Administration) is a high profile Masters course which can take 2 years. Applicants will usually be high achieving with at least 2 years managerial experience. A PhD research degree in the UK can take between 2 and 7 years.

boarding schools

Bright World works almost exclusively with privately funded schools and colleges. A boarding school is a residential school where pupils live and study during the school year. There are approximately 500 boarding schools across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

UK boarding schools offer pupils an outstanding education, helping them to develop their skills and progress to university. All UK boarding schools have to meet strict government standards on the quality of their teaching, facilities and student care.

Many UK boarding schools combine beautiful, centuries-old buildings with a mix of modern classrooms and traditional architecture. The excellent facilities help make living and learning a great experience and pupils will will improve their English skills while they study.

tutorial colleges

Tutorial Colleges start at age 15 and have a more flexible programme range, focussing on fast access to UK university.

Many of the independent private sixth form colleges in Oxford, Cambridge and London work on a 'tutorial system' and are often referred to as 'tutorial colleges'. The tutorial system originates from Oxford and Cambridge Universities and is a very highly regarded and much tested system. It it is still used today and is the cornerstone of an 'Oxbridge' education. A tutorial is a small class of only a few students, in which the tutor (a lecturer or other academic faculty member) gives individual attention to the students.

state boarding schools

A state boarding school is one where you pay for boarding and the education is free. The government pays for the education as it would at any other state school in England.

Admission to state boarding schools in the UK is limited to children who are nationals of the UK and are eligible to hold a full UK passport, or those who are nationals of other European Union countries or those who have the right of residence in the UK. Please note that the holding of a BN(O) passport does not make the child eligible for a state boarding school in the UK.

F E Colleges

An FE college is an institution that provides education for those above school age (age 16). There are many types of FE colleges including, sixth form colleges, specialist colleges and adult education institutes. FE Colleges are state run and as such those members of the EU joining can benefit from free education. There is also a competitive fee structure available for non-EU international students.

pathway courses at university

If you need to improve your English language or study skills before attending a UK university, pathway providers offer unique foundation courses which often lead to direct degree-level entry upon completion. There are several private companies who operate Foundation and Diploma programmes on the campuses of UK universities. Often these courses offer accelerated access to undergraduate degrees.

universities

The UK is one of the world's most popular destination for students from overseas. In fact, more than 400,000 international students enrol each year.International students considering an education in the UK have a choice of over 140 universities and higher education institutions, each offering a great range of tertiary qualifications that will be recognised the world over. Students join a 3 year undergraduate programme or a 1 year postgraduate course.

UK university placement

university students throwing mortar boards

For expert advice on UK and US university entry, Bright World has teamed up with Education Advisers Ltd, whose experienced consultants offer a full range of Higher Education services for international students. These range from complimentary advice on the best University Foundation courses, to bespoke Oxbridge and Medical School coaching and mentorship programmes. You can visit their websites at www.universityadvice.co.uk or www.best-schools.co.uk or call +44 1622 813870 for further information.

guardianship and school placement advice

Boarding school guardianship.

If your child is attending a boarding school you will need to nominate a UK guardian. Bright World can help you with this service.

university guardianship

If you are under 18 when you start university you will need to nominate a UK-based adult or guardian. Bright World has a programme especially for you.

boarding school placement

If you are looking for a place at a UK boarding school Bright World can help you.

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Study in UK /

Why Do You Want to Study in UK Essay: Samples, Do’s and Don’t’s

Updated on
Dec 14, 2023

If you want to know how you can write a great essay on why one should study in the United Kingdom , then you have landed on the right blog. We will give you examples of why do you want to study in UK essay. Maybe you want to write this essay for your college assignments, or you are preparing for a speech, or maybe you want to submit this essay to a competition. It doesn’t matter what’s your aim here, we will help you in writing your essay by offering you samples and do’s and don’t’s. You will practically learn here how to write your essay. So, let’s begin!

This Blog Includes:

Sample 1 (100 words), sample 2 (150 words), sample 3 (300 words), do’s and don’t’s.

The UK has always been my dream study destination. What makes the UK attractive to me is its world-class education and extensive job opportunities. Pursuing your education at a university in the UK gets you recognised by employers and academics across the world. The country is not just known for its academic excellence but also its rich and diverse culture.

The UK boasts about 679,970 international students, demonstrating how welcoming it is to foreigners. The universities here are known to encourage students to be more creative, innovative, and expressive of their innovative thinking.

These are the reasons why I want to study in the UK. This is all I wanted to say in my why do you want to study in UK essay.

Abhishek Kumar Jha

Abhishek Kumar Jha is a professional content writer and marketer, having extensive experience in delivering content in journalism and marketing. He has written news content related to education for prominent media outlets, garnering expansive knowledge of the Indian education landscape throughout his experience. Moreover, he is a skilled content marketer, with experience in writing SEO-friendly blogs. His educational background includes a Postgraduate Diploma in English Journalism from the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Dhenkanal. By receiving an education from a top journalism school and working in the corporate world with complete devotion, he has honed the essential skills needed to excel in content writing.

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Histoire de l’éducation

Accueil Numéros 154 Dossier History of education in Britain s...

History of education in Britain since 1960

This article reviews the historiography as it has developed in Britain over the past sixty years in the history of education. This encompasses three key phases. From 1960 until about 1975 it was a field that was based mainly in key texts while new journals and societies began to emerge. From 1975 to the end of the century as it lost its mass market in teacher education, general texts in the history of education declined while specialised journals research grew in importance. In the early decades of the twenty-first century, specialisation continued in an increasingly diversified research field with a growing emphasis on theory, methodology, comparative and transnational approaches, and engagement with the social sciences. Initially quite insular and tending to focus on local and national concerns, it became prominent in international activities and in contributing to research with international, comparative and transnational vistas. Overall, the map of the history of education in Britain has changed both in form and in content, as well as in the audience towards which it was principally directed.

Cet article passe en revue les évolutions historiographiques qui ont marqué le champ de l'histoire de l'éducation en Grande-Bretagne au cours des soixante dernières années. Elle comprend trois phases clés. De 1960 à 1975 environ, c'est un domaine qui s'est principalement structuré autour de publications emblématiques alors que de nouvelles revues et sociétés commençaient à émerger. De 1975 à la fin du siècle, alors que l’histoire de l’éducation perdait le marché que représentait jusque-là la formation des enseignants, la place des grandes synthèses a décliné tandis que la recherche dans les revues spécialisées prenait de l'importance. Au cours des premières décennies du XXIe siècle, la spécialisation s'est poursuivie dans un champ de recherche de plus en plus diversifié, mettant de plus en plus l'accent sur la théorie, la méthodologie, les approches comparatives et transnationales, et l'ouverture aux sciences sociales. Initialement assez isolée et tendant à se concentrer sur des préoccupations locales et nationales, la communauté des chercheurs britanniques s’est activement impliquée dans les activités internationales, et a contribué à promouvoir les approches internationales, comparatives et transnationales. Dans l'ensemble, la carte de l'histoire de l'éducation en Grande-Bretagne a changé tant dans sa forme que dans son contenu, ainsi que dans le public auquel elle s'adressait.

Entrées d’index

Mots-clés : , keywords: , texte intégral.

1 See e.g. Gary McCulloch, The Struggle for the History of Education , London, Routledge, 2011.

1 Writing on the history of education has changed in fundamental ways over the past sixty years. In 1960, the history of education was produced mainly through texts written for a national audience, largely comprising future teachers, which gave it low status as a field of study in the academy compared to recognised disciplines such as history or philosophy. There was no national association to represent the history of education, nor any specific journal to support it. The educational past was usually represented in terms of gradual progress in the growth of schooling since the nineteenth century and the gradual improvement of the society and economy that it served. In 2020, the history of education was written mainly in journal articles rather than in texts. A national History of Education Society (HES) had emerged and grown to represent it, and was responsible for the development of a leading journal to explore different aspects of the past. The broad consensus of educational and social progress had been broken, to be replaced by revisionist approaches that sought to investigate many kinds of relationships between education and society 1 .

2 Earlier general discussions of the historiography of education in Britain include Peter Gordon, Ri (...)

2 The map of the history of education changed over these six decades in three broad phases, albeit often contested and partial in nature. In the first, roughly from 1960 until 1975, what was described as a quiet revolution took place as the area expanded, a new journal and association were created, and new topics and approaches were developed, although texts remained important. Over the following quarter-century, these gains threatened to go into reverse as the history of education lost its place in teacher education and general texts largely ceased production. In the early years of the twenty-first century the history of education began to reinvent itself as a research-based sub-discipline based in journal literature and research monographs. This encouraged a more diverse and fragmented audience across the social sciences and humanities rather than in teacher education, international as well as national in its orientation, while retaining its infrastructure in the form of its national association and journal 2 .

3 Peter Gordon, Richard Szreter, “Introduction”, in Peter Gordon, Richard Szreter (eds.), History of (...)
4 For general international trends in the history of education see also e.g. Gary McCulloch, “New di (...)

3 The current article seeks to trace the history of education in this period as a discrete and unique knowledge formation with a distinctive identity in higher education. It has been regarded by prominent advocates as a “discipline” in itself, or a “sub-discipline” or “specialism”, requiring as Gordon and Szreter put it, “both a cognitive identity and a professional identity, the latter being at the core of its institutionalisation” 3 . It has drawn eclectically on the methods, perspectives and philosophies associated with the discipline of history, while exploring the content of education as a field of knowledge, and engaging increasingly with the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary facets of the social sciences and humanities. The historical development of the history of education over the past sixty years is surveyed here in relation to an extended university project, occupying not only the departmental and faculty structures of higher education but also its many accompanying projects, developed and promoted by practising academics, such as journals, societies, centres and conferences. The main sources through which this is discussed are the published works that have been produced, both as books and as journal articles, and also the societies and conferences that were established during this period 4 .

I. 1960-1975: A quiet revolution

4 The first of these phases, from 1960 until the mid-1970s, was one of social and political debate in Britain. The narrow defeat of the Conservative government in 1964 led to a Labour government under Harold Wilson that emphasised educational and social reform. From 1970, under Edward Heath’s Conservative government, the further expansion of the educational system began to falter with growing industrial and economic problems. It was against this background that the sub-discipline of the history of education was fully institutionalised as a new academic society was established in the history of education in 1967, and then a new research journal, History of Education , in 1972.

5 Brian Simon, Studies in the History of Education, 1780-1870 , London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1960; B (...)

6 On Brian Simon see also e.g. Anne Corbett, “obituary, Brian Simon”, The Guardian , 22 January 2002.

5 In terms of the approach taken by historians of education, this phase of development was dominated by the work of Brian Simon at the University of Leicester, whose first three of his four-volume history of education in Britain since 1780 were published during this time. What became the first volume in the set, published in 1960, covered the period from 1780 to 1870, and explored the nature of educational reform in England during the Industrial Revolution, up to and including the Elementary Education Act of 1870. The second volume, in 1965, took the story up to 1920, while the third, in 1974, addressed the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s 5 . This was a story that belied the narrative of gradual social progress that had hitherto underpinned histories of education in Britain. On the contrary, it proposed that this history should be interpreted in Marxist terms, as being about a working-class struggle for education against the vested interests of the middle class. According to Simon, the originators of the education system in the nineteenth century, such as James Key-Shuttleworth and Robert Lowe, represented middle class interests in undermining those of the organised working class, in education no less than in society as a whole. Simon portrayed the contest between these opposing class interests playing itself out in the sphere of education throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 6 .

6 In the 1960s, the history of education was represented, as it had been for several decades, mainly through textbooks designed to appeal to student teachers being trained for their future profession. Simon’s work was no exception to this general rule, and there were many other examples of this type produced at this time. There were no British journals focusing specifically on the history of education in the early 1960s, and so it tended to be a text-based field with its roots in teacher education rather than a journal-based one leaning towards specialised research.

7 John Harrison, Learning and Living 1790-1960, London, RKP, 1960, p. xii-xiii.

8 Walter Armytage, Four Hundred Years of English Educatio n , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1 (...)
9 Walter Armytage, Th e American Influence on English Education , London, RKP, 1967; The French Influe (...)
10 Joan Simon, Education and Society in Tudor England , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1966. S (...)
11 Gillian Sutherland, Policy-Making in Elementary Education, 1870-95 , Oxford University Press, Oxfor (...)

7 A further text produced in 1960 was John Harrison’s history of the English adult education movement, Learning and Living, 1790-1960 . Harrison’s work demonstrated the contribution of adult education, in relation to “contemporary aspects of social policy and social change”, to the growth of democracy and its ambivalent role as “alternatively a movement of protest and a means to promote social acceptance and harmony” 7 . Another key figure who produced his most significant work as texts at this time was Walter Armytage at the University of Sheffield. By contrast with Simon, Armytage’s published oeuvre presented the history of education in England in terms of gradual progress towards a rational, scientific and civilised society. He insisted that the structures developed under the 1870 Elementary Education Act were essentially benevolent and progressive in their design. He also cultivated a strongly internationalist dimension in his work which he reflected increasingly in his comparative studies, especially in demonstrating the international influences of educational ideas and practices. Armytage produced several books that traced the origins and development of modern educational and social movements 8 . In the later 1960s, Armytage also contributed a series of short works to the Students Library of Education series on different national influences on English education: the American, French, German, and Russian 9 . Joan Simon and Gillian Sutherland are further examples of leading historians of education who produced key texts that revised earlier approaches to particular periods, and discussed new perspectives on the history of education at this time. Joan Simon’s Education and Society in Tudor England was a benchmark text that effectively revised much earlier scholarship on sixteenth-century education 10 . For her part, Sutherland published significant studies on the nature of educational government in late nineteenth century England 11 .

12 Brian Simon, “The history of education”, in John William Tibble (ed.), The Study of Education , Lon (...)

13 Ibid ., p. 95.

14 Ibid ., p. 105.

8 Nevertheless, Brian Simon in a defining contribution asserted a different and distinctive rationale for the study of the history of education. He argued that historical study of education should be primarily concerned with the study of education as a social function. Thus, according to Simon, education was “a social function, and one of primary importance in every society” 12 . When viewed in this way, Simon insisted, the history of education could be recognised “as a vital contribution to social history –rather than as a flat record of acts and ordinances, punctuated by accounts of the theories of great educators who entertained ideas ‘in advance of their time” 13 . In such a history, moreover, education would take its proper place, “not merely as an adjunct to the historical process but as one of the chief factors conditioning men’s outlook and aspirations” 14 .

15 See also Gary McCulloch, Steven Cowan, A Social History of Educational Studies and Research , Londo (...)

9 These reflections on the nature and rationale of the history of education took place in a rapidly changing institutional context involving the expansion of higher education. Courses in teacher training were extended from two to three years in 1960 with a new Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree. In these extended courses, general treatments of education as a whole gave way to specialised examination of education based on its key disciplines, including history. This led to larger numbers of staff being appointed with specialist experience in particular disciplines, and in some cases ability in research. This was therefore a period of growth which encouraged the formation of new academic societies to support the disciplinary communities that were becoming established 15 .

16 History of Education Society Bulletin , no. 1, 1968, Editorial, p. 2.

10 In the case of the history of education, the HES was formed in December 1967 at a conference held at the City of Liverpool C.F. Mott College of Education. This was attended by 150 participants, mainly teachers of the subject in colleges and departments of education. Armytage and Simon both lent their authority to this initiative by opening the conference. They referred in this to a growing interest in the history of education, particularly since the introduction of the BEd degree. They also proposed potential new approaches to the topic, which Kenneth Charlton of the University of Birmingham discussed further in a subsequent address to the conference. The remainder of this conference was concerned with a consideration of current syllabuses in colleges and departments of education, and with a lecture on the relationship between Church and State 16 . This led to an annual conference held by the Society in subsequent years to explore particular themes: in December 1968, on the government and control of education since 1860; in December 1969, on the changing curriculum; and in December 1970, on history, sociology and education.

17 British Journal of Educational Studies , special issue, “1870 Elementary Education Act”, vol. 18, n (...)
18 Ministry of Education, 15 to 18 (Crowther Report), London, HMSO, 1959; Ministry of Education, Half (...)

11 Each of the three themes selected by the HES for its early conferences held wider significance. In the case of the 1968 conference on the government and control of education, it helped to mark the approaching centenary of the 1870 Elementary Education Act. This was also an interest of the main academic education journal, the British Journal of Educational Studies , whose long-time editor, Arthur Beales of King’s College London, was himself a historian. In 1970, the BJES published a special issue to commemorate the centenary of the Act 17 . The centenary coincided with the culmination in Britain of a period of relative economic growth and social reform, including education. Since the 1950s, investment in educational growth had led to further development at all levels of education. The gradual formation of a national system of education with its foundations traced to the nineteenth century could be widely observed and generally celebrated as a basis for further growth. The substantial reports on different aspects of education that were published in the late 1950s and 1960s –the Crowther report 15 to 18 , the Robbins report on higher education, the Newsom report Half our Future and the Plowden report on primary education– could all provide a historical narrative of growth and progress in education 18 .

19 HES (ed.) The Changing Curriculum , London, Methuen, 1971, Introduction, p. xi.

12 The second HES conference theme on the changing curriculum also reflected wider developments. In England during the 1960s, the school curriculum appeared to be a highly promising area for promoting radical change, alongside the organisational change offered by comprehensive secondary schools designed for pupils of all aptitudes and abilities. By the 1970s, the complexities and disappointments of curriculum reform were more clearly evident. Over this time, responding to these contemporary developments, the curriculum became a topic of increasing interest for historians of education. The introduction to the collection made the point that well defined external circumstances such as the launching of Sputnik I in 1957 sometimes appeared to stimulate curriculum change, but “often the reasons why new movements gain momentum are more complex and the skills of the historian are therefore more necessary then ever in helping to elucidate them” 19 . The collection itself represented an impressive range of papers contributed by leading scholars in the field, from humanist education in the Renaissance to heurism in the nineteenth century.

20 Edward Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class , New York, Pantheon, 1964.

21 Lawrence Stone, “The educational revolution in England, 1560-1640”, Past and Present , no. 28, 1964 (...)
22 See e.g. Michael Young (ed.), Knowledge and Control: New Directions for the Sociology of Education (...)
23 Gerald Bernbaum, “Sociological techniques and historical study”, in HES (ed.), History, Sociology (...)
24 See e.g. Alis Oancea, David Bridges, “Philosophy of education in the UK: the historical and contem (...)

13 Thirdly, the 1970 conference theme highlighted contemporary debates over the relationship between history of education and the disciplines of history on the one hand and sociology on the other. A new form of social history was also in a phase of expansion and institutionalisation during the 1960s, expressed in works such as Edward Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class 20 . Innovative studies in the social history of education were included in a self-styled radical journal of social history, Past and Present , on such topics as the educational revolution of early modern England and the history of literacy, by Lawrence Stone, and on working class education in nineteenth century England, by Richard Johnson 21 . At the same time sociology as a discipline, and the sociology of education specifically, were becoming more firmly established in higher education. In the 1960s and 1970s, there were several explicit and elaborate attempts to integrate historical and sociological approaches to the study of education. This was a feature of the self-styled “new” sociology of education, which sought both social and historical explanations for “what counts as knowledge” in modern societies 22 . The HES’s venture into this area went so far as to suggest, in the contribution by Gerald Bernbaum, that “those who work in the field of education, with its wide-ranging perspectives and tradition of interdisciplinary activity, might pioneer historical sociology in order that we might better understand not only the educational system, but also the educational process” 23 . This suggested at least a partial rapprochement, never wholly realised, between the history and sociology of education that was not achieved between the history of education and the philosophy of education, which created a separate national society, conference and journal also in the 1960s 24 .

25 Asa Briggs, “The study of the history of education”, History of Education , vol. 1, no. 1, 1972, p. (...)

14 The HES’s interests and ideas developed in its early conferences led in 1972 to it establishing a new journal specifically devoted to the history of education. There had already appeared a journal founded by Peter Gosden at the University of Leeds in 1968 under the title of the Journal of Educational Administration and History. The HES’s new journal, entitled simply History of Education , was the first in Britain to be solely concerned with this topic. The emphasis of the new journal was clearly linked to social history, as its first issue indicated with its initial article by a leading social historian, Asa Briggs. This article concluded with a ringing declaration of intent, that the study of the history of education was best considered as part of the wider study of the history of society, social history broadly interpreted with the politics, economics and religion included 25 . It was a key moment in the redrawing of the map of the history of education in Britain.

26 Richard Aldrich, “A quiet revolution in the history of education”, Times Higher Educational Supple (...)

15 One sign of the nature and expansion of the field in the early 1970s was around new staffing appointments. One such was Richard Aldrich. He had read History at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge before becoming a history teacher at Godalming County School in Surrey and then senior lecturer in history at Southlands College. In 1973, while still completing his PhD, he was appointed as a lecturer in the history of education at the Institute of Education London (IOE), the first full time member of staff in this area at the largest centre for educational studies and research in the UK. The following year, Aldrich presented his hopes for his area of study in an article for the Times Higher Educational Supplement . Under the title of “Quiet revolution in the history of education”, Aldrich’s paper pointed out the advances made by his subject over the past few years. This, he proposed, was part of a much wider reorganisation and expansion of historical studies in general, although the history of education was special because it served both history and the needs of education. He suggested that wider changes “have tended to obscure the quiet revolution taking place in the history of education” 26 . Surely the future lay with them.

II. 1975-2000: Decline and dispersal?

27 Roy Lowe, “History as propaganda: the strange uses of the history of education (1983-1990)”, in Pe (...)

16 The final decades of the twentieth century posed significant challenges to history of education as a discrete knowledge formation, in Britain as elsewhere, and the expansion and confidence of the early 1970s soon began to fade. This was in the context, first, of changes in higher education including teacher education policy that endangered the traditional role of the history of education in teacher education. Roy Lowe of the University of Birmingham, for example, referred tellingly to “the beleaguered position of history of education in teacher-training and in-service courses”, adding that “At the close of two decades which have seen what is little short of a Renaissance, much of it conceived and carried out within Colleges and Faculties of Education, it is ironic that historians of education should find themselves under renewed attack” 27 . By the end of that decade, its position had deteriorated to such an extent that it was virtually excluded from the teacher education curriculum.

28 See Gary McCulloch, Struggle for the History of Education , op. cit ., Ch. 8.

29 See Gary McCulloch, “Marketing the millennium: education for the 21 st century”, in Andy Hargreaves (...)
30 Brian Simon, “The history of education”, in Paul Hirst (ed.), Educational Theory and its Foundatio (...)
31 Richard Aldrich, “History of education in initial teacher education in England and Wales”, History (...)
32 Wendy Robinson, “Finding our professional niche: reinventing ourselves as twenty-first century his (...)

17 From the 1970s onwards, education came under increasing pressure to be more directly accountable to current social and economic demands, and this encouraged a growing emphasis on approaches that had an immediate utility and relevance for schools and teachers. This general trend was witnessed in courses in education, in teacher training and continued professional development, and also in research. Disciplinary studies of education, under the umbrella of educational studies, tended to give way to a more unitary approach in educational research. 28 The history of education also lost its prominent place in educational reforms, as these increasingly looked forward towards the promise and challenges of the next millennium rather than backwards to the foundations of the past 29 . Simon continued to insist that “all those professionally engaged in education” would benefit from historical understanding 30 . Nevertheless, by 1990 Aldrich could lament that, a century after being introduced into the curriculum, “history of education has been virtually eliminated from courses of initial teacher education, at least at the postgraduate level” 31 . This gave rise to growing problems for the history of education in many institutions of higher education. As another British historian of education, Wendy Robinson, commented, its “professional niche” was at risk, with an “ambivalent location”, straddling the rival domains of history of education, which “rendered it vulnerable to accusations of reduced status, worth and respectability within the academy” 32 .

18 Despite these less than promising circumstances, the history of education was able to survive partly through the support of the national organisation that it had recently developed. The national society created an infrastructure to help sustain it, generating regular conferences and other events and also providing collegial support and stimulating new developments. It provided an institutional base for the history of education, and eventually a means of nurturing fresh approaches and supporting new recruits. Its new journal became more firmly established when the publishers Taylor and Francis took over its publication from 1975, and it then benefited from stable editorship first under Kenneth Charlton (now at King’s College London), until 1986, and then Roy Lowe over the following decade until 1996. Gary McCulloch (Sheffield) took over as editor from 1996 until 2003, and by 2000 it expanded further from four issues to six issues per year. This provided the basis for a community of knowledge and practice, and a home for specialist research in the area. It was also a base for international research, as the HES’s annual conferences began to attract increasing numbers of overseas delegates while its home contingent began to diminish.

33 John Lawson, Harold Silver, A Social History of Education in England , London, Routledge, 1973.

19 Indeed, just as the possibilities for research began to improve, the loss of teacher education meant a steady decline in the audience for its work. This meant a decline in staff numbers and the eclipse of the sub-discipline in a number of institutions where it had been prominent, such as Leeds, Liverpool, and even Simon’s old base of Leicester. King’s College London lost its premier position in the history of education with Charlton’s retirement in 1983, to be replaced by the Institute of Education London, now under Aldrich’s leadership. It also led to the loss of textbooks for teaching purposes. A Social History of Education in England by John Lawson and Harold Silver, published in 1973, covering the history of education from medieval times to the present, was one of the few new texts of this type 33 .

34 Brian Simon, Education and the Social Order, 1940-1990 , London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1991.

35 Brian Simon, note, “Historical books” (Brian Simon archive, London, UCL Institute of Education).

20 Only Simon’s texts remained, monuments of teaching courses in full retreat if not dying. When Simon’s fourth volume was published in 1991, bringing his history up to date, it was apparent that even his sales figures were well down on those of the 1960s and 1970s 34 . In 1995, Simon made a detailed check on the sales records of his four-volume history. The first, published in 1960, had sold well over 1000 copies in Britain in every five-year cycle until 1980, after when it began to decline. This might have been understandable as there were later volumes now in publication, but these showed the same trend. The second volume, published in 1965, sold 1500 copies or more in each five year cycle until 1980, when sales began to tail off, and it went out of print in 1990. The third volume, published in 1974, sold well over 1500 copies before 1980, but sales then declined sharply. The fourth volume, published in April 1991 in a hardback edition, sold only 529 copies by 1995, with an additional 300 in the United States. Simon’s own explanation for these relatively low sales was first, the high price of the books at 40 pounds, but second, “declining interest in history of education” 35 .

36 William Richardson, “History, education and audience”, in David Crook, Richard Aldrich (eds.), His (...)

21 Thus, having once sustained itself mainly through teacher education, articulated in the form of textbooks, the history of education was now changing perforce to become more dependent on research and expressed in journal literature, in search of an audience for its work. William Richardson at the University of Exeter pointed out that the “professional audience” had “dried up” as government priorities had obliged teachers and educators to concentrate almost exclusively on immediate policy problems, and that “the onus is firmly on educationists specialising in history to put forward a fresh justification of their role and foster a new audience for their work” 36 .

37 History of Education , vol. 19, no. 3, 1990.

38 See e.g. Robert Anderson, Schools and Universities in Victorian Scotland: Schools and Universities (...)

22 In terms of research focus, there were several fresh directions developed during these years. In relation to the history of education in Wales, long regarded simply as an adjunct to England, some new approaches were taken in the 1980s and 1990s led especially by Gareth Elwyn Jones at the University of Wales Swansea. In 1989, the annual conference of the HES was held at Cardiff University on the history of education in Wales, leading the following year to a special issue of the journal History of Education 37 . Historians of Scottish education meanwhile began to challenge uncritical defences of the progress of education in Scotland, in particular through the work of Robert Anderson at the University of Edinburgh, especially his key study Education and Opportunity in Victorian Scotland , and Donald Withrington at the University of Aberdeen 38 .

39 Peter Gordon, Denis Lawton, Curriculum Change in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries , Sevenoaks (...)
40 William Marsden, “Historical approaches to curriculum study”, in William Marsden (ed.), Post-War C (...)
41 William Marsden, “Introduction”, in William Marsden (ed.), Post-War Curriculum Development , p. vii (...)
42 Ivor Goodson (ed.), Social Histories of the Secondary Curriculum: Subjects for Study , London, Falm (...)
43 For further details see also Gary McCulloch, “Curriculum history and the history of education », i (...)

23 Another fresh emphasis was around the history of the school curriculum. The politics of the curriculum and the wide range of interests associated with it became central aspects of this new historical literature. A general historical account of curriculum change in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by Peter Gordon and Denis Lawton was based on their view that “curriculum change is the result of complex patterns of interaction between influential individuals and general processes of social, political and economic change” 39 . One prominent historian of education, William Marsden, the editor of a further set of conference papers on the topic produced by the History of Education Society, pointed out that in the light of recent experience sophisticated theoretical frameworks were not enough, and that interest had therefore shifted to “the constraints imposed by economic and political factors, the conflict of personality and group interest, […] by the level of teaching skills available, and by the sheer complexity of the exercise” 40 . In this HES collection, the focus was on curriculum change since the Second World War, with Marsden suggesting that “stock-taking” was now in order after the rapid pace of curriculum development in the 1960s and early 1970s 41 . During the 1980s, the work of Ivor Goodson and the emergence of a self-styled “curriculum history” took such research to a new level. Goodson’s ideal of the potential contribution of “curriculum history”, strongly influenced by the new sociology of education, led him to establish a book series entitled “Studies in Curriculum History”, with Falmer Press, a rising force in academic publishing in the 1980s under its managing director, Malcolm Clarkson. The flagship first volume in this series, edited by Goodson himself, was a collection under the title of Social Histories of the Secondary Curriculum 42 . This included a wide range of historical accounts of the development of subjects in the secondary school curriculum 43 .

44 William Stephens, Education, Literacy and Society 1830-1870 : The Geography of Diversity in Provinc (...)
45 David Vincent, Bread, Knowledge and Freedom: A Study of Nineteenth Century Working Class Autobiogr (...)
46 See e.g. Gary McCulloch, “Histories of urban education in the United Kingdom”, in Second Internati (...)
47 E.g. Martin Wiener, English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit 1850-1980 , Cambridge, (...)

24 Other new directions for history of education research in this period included literacy, urban education, and technical and vocational education. In relation to literacy, W.E. Stephens consolidated and extended the established quantitative method of calculating literacy by estimating numbers of brides and grooms able to sign their names on marriage registers 44 . On the other hand, David Vincent helped to pioneer the qualitative analysis of working-class autobiographies and a wide range of sources as a complementary approach to explore the application of reading and writing to the family, the workplace, the response to the natural world, the imaginative life of the community and the political ideology and movements of the nineteenth century 45 . The history of urban education also became a common focus of attention at this time, led in particular by historians such as David Reeder, W.E. Marsden and Anna Davin 46 . At the same time, a cluster of work developed around the history of technical and vocational education, reflecting on the historical failures of initiatives in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to maintain Britain’s industrial competitiveness through educational change 47 .

48 E.g. June Purvis, “Working class women and adult education in nineteenth-century Britain”, History (...)
49 June Purvis, “The historiography of British education: a feminist critique”, in Ali Rattansi, Davi (...)

50 See History of Education, vol. 22, no. 3, 1993; and History of Education , vol. 29, no. 5, 2000.

51 Ian Grosvenor, Assimilating Identities: Racism and Educational Policy in Post 1945 Britain , London (...)

25 A further rich seam for research, complementing and in some cases challenging Simon’s emphasis on social class, was around the education of girls and women. June Purvis (Portsmouth) and Carol Dyhouse (Sussex) led the way in the 1980s, the former with research that highlighted the educational struggles of working class girls and women in the nineteenth century, and the latter with a study of the family relationships of girls growing up 48 . Purvis in particular complained that British history of education had been too slow to respond to the challenges posed by feminist history 49 . However, this early work helped to paved the way for further activity in the 1990s, including two annual conferences on related topics organised by the HES in 1992 and 1999, both leading to special issues of its Journal. The special issue in 2000, on “Breaking boundaries: gender, politics and the experience of education”, guest edited by Joyce Goodman (Winchester) and Jane Martin (North London) featured substantial contributions from England, the United States, India and South Africa 50 . New work on education and ethnicity was slower to develop, although Ian Grosvenor’s Assimilating Identities provided a significant fresh focus on racism and education policy since the Second World War 51 .

52 Stephen Humphries, Hooligans or Rebels? An Oral History of Working Class Childhood and Youth , Oxfo (...)
53 Philip Gardner, “The giant at the front: young teachers and corporal punishment in inter-war eleme (...)
54 Cambridge Journal of Education , special issue, “Teachers’ lives: training and careers in historica (...)

26 During this time, an increasing range of evidence began to be deployed in the history of education, with some early discussions on theoretical issues. Oral history became increasingly familiar as a methodological device, especially as a means of discovering the experiences, outlooks and alternative agendas of marginalised groups such as the working class, women, ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples. The value of such evidence was emphasised by Stephen Humphries in his study of working class childhood and youth, Hooligans or Rebels? , published in 1981 52 . By the 1990s, significant research was taking place on the oral history of teachers’ professional practice, with Philip Gardner and Peter Cunningham at Cambridge leading the way in this area 53 . The annual conference of the HES was devoted to this topic in 1996, with a special issue of the Cambridge Journal of Education based on this event following soon afterwards 54 .Visual history involving analysis of documents such as photographs and films also began to be deployed more widely at this time, allowing new research on the history of classrooms and of teacher and learner interactions.

55 Anthony Mangan, Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School , Cambridge, Cambridge Uni (...)
56 Detlef Muller, Fritz Ringer, Brian Simon (eds.), The Rise of the Modern Educational System: Struct (...)

57 History of Education , vol. 27, no. 3, 1998; History of Education , vol. 28, no. 3, 1999.

27 More broadly, the significance of education in disseminating ideals and practices around the British Empire itself became a key theme, especially in the writings of J.A. Mangan. His early work on nineteenth-century public schools developed into research that highlighted the imperial role of the products of the public schools in different outposts of the Empire around the world 55 . Meanwhile, British historians of education were especially active in helping to organise an international association, the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE). Brian Simon, then the chair of the HES, led an initiative that culminated in an all-European seminar on the history of education held in Oxford in September 1978. ISCHE was established the following year, with Simon elected as its first chairman from 1979 to 1982. Further discussions and seminars produced a collection published in 1987, edited by Simon with Detlef Muller and Fritz Ringer of Germany, on the rise of the modern educational system, including several case studies on secondary and higher education in England 56 . The HES annual conference in 1987 was concerned with the theme of international currents in educational ideas and practice. During the 1990s, this increasing interest in international issues was maintained, guided in particular by Richard Aldrich, as president first of the HES and then of ISCHE. Comparative and international approaches were further encouraged through HES annual conferences on education and economic performance, in 1997, and on education and national identity the following year. Each of these events was followed by a special issue on the topic in History of Education 57 .

III. 2000-2020: specialisation and internationalisation

28 In the first few years of the twenty-first century, Simon died, while Aldrich retired as professor of history of education at the IOE London, and Lowe also stepped down from his professorship at Swansea. Yet, if this seemed like the final links with its expansive phase being broken, in the first two decades of the twenty-first century the history of education in Britain generally maintained its position by developing in its research rather than in its teaching, and becoming increasingly specialised in its approach. It retained the strong national infrastructure that had helped it to survive in the 1980s and 1990s, while looking outwards to international, comparative and transnational perspectives. Still lacking a mass audience for its work, questions remained around its future development and identity as higher education continued to change apace.

58 Roy Lowe, “Writing the history of education”, in Roy Lowe (ed.), History of Education: Major Theme (...)
59 David Crook, Richard Aldrich, “Introduction”, in David Crook, Richard Aldrich (eds.), History of E (...)

29 At the turn of the century, a number of commentators could argue that the history of education in Britain was in a healthy and vigorous condition, at least in the quality of its research. For example, Roy Lowe argued that since the early 1960s, over the span of his own professional career, “the writing of the History of Education has undergone little short of a revolution”. Indeed, Lowe continued, “In recent years, History of Education has become clearly identified as a full and proper element in the study of history more generally, with a central role to play in the development of social, economic and political history, and this development can be only for the good” 58 . This general view was endorsed by Crook and Aldrich, who also insisted that in terms of research and publications, “British history of education entered the twenty-first century in a relatively strong position” 59 .

60 Kevin Brehony, book review, History of Education , vol. 32, no. 4, 2003, p. 441.

61 Marc Depaepe, “What kind of history of education may we expect for the twenty-first century? Some (...)

30 On the other hand, there were significant criticisms of the kind of research that was being undertaken. The British historian of education Kevin Brehony contended that insufficient attention had been given to social theory, in particular postmodernism 60 . Meanwhile, Marc Depaepe, a senior European historian of education, registered severe reservations in relation to British history of education for showing the effects of having been excluded from initial teacher education. Depaepe described one edited collection of essays produced in Britain as “the fruit of frustration and anger at the languishing position of the history of education course in teacher training”, and argued that this represented a “corporatist defensive reflex” on the part of British historians of education 61 .

62 History of Education , special issue, “Social change in the history of education: the British exper (...)
63 See e.g. Jane Martin, Joyce Goodman, Women and Education 1800-1980 , London, Palgrave Macmillan, 20 (...)
64 See e.g. Joyce Goodman, “Troubling histories and theories: gender and the history of education”, H (...)

31 Overall, the position was doubtless mixed, as a new generation of educational historians came to the fore. McCulloch moved from Sheffield to be appointed as the first Brian Simon professor of the history of education at the IOE London in 2003. Joyce Goodman built up the history of women’s education into the Centre for the History of Women’s Education as a professor at University College Winchester, followed by Stephanie Spencer. Ian Grosvenor became professor of the history of urban education at the University of Birmingham, with Ruth Watts and then Jane Martin leading studies at Birmingham on the history of women’s education. The HES was now firmly established with its annual conferences and a policy for supporting research students and early career researchers. A set of six seminars funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and based on a partnership between the IOE, Winchester and Exeter, engaged in a thorough review and analysis of the history of education and of its key research priorities, leading in 2007 to a double special issue of History of Education on social change in the history of education 62 . The election of first Ruth Watts, and later Joyce Goodman, Jane Martin and Stephanie Spencer as presidents of the HES reflected the importance of women in the leadership of the national field, as well as the growing amount of research on the history of girls’ and women’s education 63 . New approaches to “gendering” the history of education itself also became well established 64 .

65 Oxford Review of Education , special issue, “Histories of learning in the modern world”, guest edit (...)
66 David Crook, “Teacher education as a field of historical research: retrospect and prospect”, Histo (...)
67 E.g. Kevin Myers, “Immigrants and ethnic minorities in the history of education”, Paedagogica Hist (...)
68 Felicity Armstrong, “Disability, education and social change in England since 1960” History of Edu (...)
69 E.g. Pamela Dale, “Special education at Starcross before 1948”, History of Education , vol. 36, no. (...)
70 Derrick Armstrong, Experiences of Special Education: Re-Evaluating Policy and Practice through Lif (...)

32 There were many other fresh directions, such as the history of learners and learning advocated in a special issue of Oxford Review of Education on histories of education in the modern world, and indications of a revival of interest in the history of adult education and learning 65 . While interest in the history of teacher education diminished, the history of higher education as a whole increased in volume and variety 66 . The history of ethnic minorities and immigration in relation education began to be explored in greater detail and depth 67 . The history of disability and disabled people in education also received some detailed attention, which was overdue as Felicity Armstrong argued 68 . Discussion of special education facilities became a growth area 69 . The experiences of disabled people in education were examined through their own testimonies 70 .

71 See e.g. History of Education , special issue, “Theory and methodology in the history of education” (...)
72 E.g. Ulrike Mietzner, Kevin Myers, Nick Peim (eds.), Visual History: Images of Education , Berne, P (...)
73 Martin Lawn, Ian Grosvenor, “‘When in doubt, preserve’: exploring the traces of teaching and mater (...)
74 E.g. Gary McCulloch, “Sensing the realities of English middle-class education: James Bryce and the (...)

33 There was increasing awareness of the importance of theory and methodology in history of education research, again drawing on insights in the broader social sciences 71 . Visual history, analysing photographs, portraits, prints, cartoons, films and other visual evidence have been analysed in order to accompany or challenge the established prominence of written texts in historical research. This kind of approach has helped historians of education to gain closer purchase on classroom life and the teaching and learning interface 72 . Historical interest in the “materiality” of schools and other educational artefacts has also begun to be developed in a range of ways. For example, Lawn and Grosvenor have explored the history of material technologies in schools, encountering traces of past practices of teachers and pupils, including everyday technologies such as pencils, slates, exercise books, ink bottles and larger devices like school desks, blackboards, typewriters, photocopiers and spirit duplicators 73 . Sensory history, involving the non-cognitive dimensions of sensation, especially the five senses of smell, sound, touch, taste and sight, has also become a theme attracting novel attention in the history of education in Britain 74 .

75 Richard Aldrich, “The three duties of the historian of education”, History of Education , vol. 32, (...)
76 See e.g. Carol Smart, “Reconsidering the recent history of child sexual abuse, 1910-1960”, Journal (...)

34 Finally, these novel concerns with theory and methodology were accompanied by another new departure receiving close attention in social science research: awareness of ethical issues. In a classic piece, Richard Aldrich presented the “three duties” of the historian in education in terms of the duty to the people of the past, the duty to our own generation, and the duty to search after the truth 75 . Such concerns were given greater force in research on the history of child sexual abuse, in the context of schools, the family or beyond 76 .

77 See Ian Grosvenor, Ruth Watts, “Urbanisation and education: the city as a light and beacon?”, Paed (...)
78 History of Education , special issue, “Centre and periphery – networks, space and geography in the (...)
79 Paedagogica Historica , special issue, “‘Empires overseas’ and ‘Empires at home’: Postcolonial and (...)
80 See Paedagogica Historica , special issue, “Education, war and peace”, guest editors Gary McCulloch (...)

35 In the early decades of the new century British historians of education were also making an increasing contribution to the development of the history of education around the world. In 2001, the University of Birmingham hosted the ISCHE annual conference on the theme of “Urbanisation and education” 77 .The HES conference and journal special issue of 2002-2003 marked the first collaborative venture of the British HES and that of Australia and New Zealand, with the unidirectional notion of “centre and periphery” 78 . A special workshop at the ISCHE conference in 2007, arising from the ESRC initiative, went further in exploring the themes of postcolonialism and transnationalism, with a further special issue of the journal Paedagogica Historica as a result 79 . In July 2014, nearly six hundred delegates were attracted from around the world to take part in an ISCHE annual conference held at the IOE London on “Education, war and peace” to mark the centenary of the First World War 80 . British historians of education also made significant contributions to the further development of ISCHE in the early decades of the twenty-first century.

81 See also Gary McCulloch, Steven Cowan, A Social History of Educational Studies and Research , Londo (...)
82 Martin Lawn, John Furlong, “The disciplines of education in the UK: between the ghost and the shad (...)
83 History of Education , special issue, “Education and citizenship in modern Scotland”, vol. 38, no. (...)
84 Gareth Elwyn Jones, “Perspectives from the brink of extinction: the fate of history of education s (...)

36 Nevertheless, there remained significant strategic challenges for the future. Nationally, the Labour governments under first Tony Blair and then Gordon Brown and a period of economic growth had presided over further expansion of the higher education system. The onset of financial crisis in 2008 followed by a period of austerity under a coalition government and then Conservative governments from 2010 posed question marks against a number of established institutions, with a referendum in 2016 eventually leading to Britain leaving the European Union, and there were increasing threats to the unity and security of Britain itself. Within this broader context, the history of education continued to be vulnerable to structural developments that were often beyond its control. It remained largely isolated from a mass teaching audience, although in a number of institutions the establishment of undergraduate courses in education provided a new opportunity. There were predictions of severe budget cuts and in some cases of closure of university education departments 81 . Martin Lawn and John Furlong had already identified what they saw as a demographic crisis that appeared more acute in education departments than in the social sciences more generally, and worse still among those working in the disciplines of education. Indeed, they suggested, “The crucial role of a discipline in education in breaking down problems into its own logics and mediating between public information and problems, and public action is in danger of disappearing” 82 . New work in the Scottish context appeared generally to be in decline despite the efforts of a special conference and journal issue, and subsequently of a comprehensive handbook on the history of education in Scotland, and an edited collection on the Catholic church and education in Scotland 83 . In Wales, lamented the veteran Gareth Elwyn Jones, the study of the history of education was already on the brink of extinction 84 .

85 Joyce Goodman, Ian Grosvenor, “Educational research – history of education a curious case?”, Oxfor (...)

37 Overall, the history of education in Britain has changed both in form and in content, as well as in the principal audience towards which it was directed. In some ways it had been redrawn such as to be almost unrecognisable in its key features. It found a new role as increasingly specialised in nature and mainly oriented towards research-based academic journal publications. As Goodman and Grosvenor have observed, historians of education have tended “to publish predominantly in specialized journals and for a pre-determined audience” 85 . The existence of a specialist society in the history of education could also lessen regular involvement in associations with a broader orientation. At its best, research in the history of education could contribute well to wider research in the humanities and the social sciences. Yet there was a risk here too that with increasing erudition in its research, its audience would become correspondingly remote, limited, and distant from the concerns of an impatient world.

38 In terms of its intellectual contribution over these sixty years, the history of education in Britain has documented the changing and contested relationship between education and the wider society, focusing initially on the role of social class and increasingly on other themes such as gender, the curriculum, teaching and learning, and drawing explicitly on wider theoretical and methodological approaches. It has tended to focus more narrowly on the history of education in modern times rather than on earlier periods, with even the nineteenth century, and the origins of modern schooling, beginning to fade from view in much teaching and research. Initially quite insular and tending to focus on local and national concerns, it became prominent in international activities and in contributing to research with international, comparative and transnational vistas.

39 Unlike the situation in the 1960s, there were no longer journals catering for different audiences that were generally prepared to include articles on the history of education on a regular basis, although there remained a number of potential outlets in diverse areas as well as the now established specialist journals. Also unlike the 1960s, when there were many institutions that might have a few historians of education to provide support for teacher education, there were now fewer institutions involved, some with isolated researchers and others with a small group operating around a research niche. New leaders continued to emerge: Catherine Burke at Cambridge, Wendy Robinson and Rob Freathy at Exeter, and Stephen Parker at Worcester, among others. Looking forward to the longer term, the existential issue remained as it had since the 1980s, how the history of education in Britain could continue to sustain itself and maintain its organisational infrastructure and its strong sense of identity and purpose, forged in the 1960s and 1970s, in conditions that continued to be far from benign.

2 Earlier general discussions of the historiography of education in Britain include Peter Gordon, Richard Szreter (eds.), History of Education: The Making of a Discipline , London, Woburn, 1989; William Richardson, “Historians and educationists: the history of education as a field of study in post-war England”, Part I, 1945-1972, History of Education , vol. 28, no. 1, 1999, p. 1-30; and Part II, 1972-1996, History of Education , vol. 28, no. 2, 1999, p. 109-141; David Crook, Richard Aldrich (eds.), History of Education in the Twenty-first Century , London, Institute of Education, 2000; William Richardson, “British historiography of education in international context at the turn of the century, 1996-2006”, History of Education, vol. 26, no. 4-5, 2007, p. 569-593; Joyce Goodman, Ian Grosvenor, “Educational research–history of education a special case?”, Oxford Review of Education , vol. 35, no. 5, 2009, p. 601-616; History of Education , special issue, “Forty years of History of Education, 1972-2011”, vol. 41, no. 1, 2012.

3 Peter Gordon, Richard Szreter, “Introduction”, in Peter Gordon, Richard Szreter (eds.), History of Education… , op. cit ., p. 3.

4 For general international trends in the history of education see also e.g. Gary McCulloch, “New directions in the history of education”, Journal of International and Comparative Education , vol. 5, no. 1, 2016, p. 47-56; and Gary McCulloch, “Consensus and revisionism in educational history”, in John Rury, Eileen Tamura (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Education , Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2029, p. 19-32.

5 Brian Simon, Studies in the History of Education, 1780-1870 , London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1960; Brian Simon, Education and the Labour Movement, 1870-1920 , London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1965; Brian Simon, The Politics of Educational Reform, 1920-1940 , London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1974. See also Gary McCulloch, “A people’s history of education: Brian Simon, the British Communist Party, and Studies in the History of Education, 1780-1870”, History of Education , vol. 39, no. 4, 2010, p. 437-57; and Gary McCulloch, Struggle for the History of Education , op. cit ., esp. Ch. 4.

8 Walter Armytage, Four Hundred Years of English Educatio n , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1964; The Rise of the Technocrats: A Social History , London, RKP, 1965; A Social History of Engineering , Cambridge Mass., MIT Press, 1966; Heavens Below: Utopian Experiments in England, 1560-1960 , London, RKP, 1968.

9 Walter Armytage, Th e American Influence on English Education , London, RKP, 1967; The French Influence on English Education, London , RKP, 1968; The German Influence on English Education , London, RKP, and The Russian Influence on English Education . For Armytage see also e.g. his entry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: < https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/70031 >.

10 Joan Simon, Education and Society in Tudor England , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1966. See also “The history of education in Past and Present ”, Oxford Review of Education , vol. 3, no. 1, 1977, p. 71-86. On Joan Simon as a historian of education, see e.g. Joan Simon, “My life in the history of education”, History of Education Society Bulletin , no. 54, 1994, p. 29, 33; Ruth Watts, “Obituary: Joan Simon (1915-2005)”, History of Education , vol. 35, no. 1, 2006, p. 5-9; and Jane Martin, “Neglected women historians: the case of Joan Simon”, Forum , vol. 56, no. 3, 2014, p. 54-66.

11 Gillian Sutherland, Policy-Making in Elementary Education, 1870-95 , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1973. See also Gillian Sutherland, “The study of the history of education”, History , vol. 54, no. 180, 1969, p. 59-69.

12 Brian Simon, “The history of education”, in John William Tibble (ed.), The Study of Education , London, RKP, 1966, p. 92.

15 See also Gary McCulloch, Steven Cowan, A Social History of Educational Studies and Research , London, Routledge, 2018, p. 50-53.

17 British Journal of Educational Studies , special issue, “1870 Elementary Education Act”, vol. 18, no. 2, 1970.

18 Ministry of Education, 15 to 18 (Crowther Report), London, HMSO, 1959; Ministry of Education, Half our Future (Newsom Report), London, HMSO, 1963; L. Robbins, Higher Education (Robbins Report), London, HMSO, 1963; Department of Education and Science, Children and their Primary Schools (Plowden Report), London, HMSO, 1967.

21 Lawrence Stone, “The educational revolution in England, 1560-1640”, Past and Present , no. 28, 1964, p. 69-139; Lawrence Stone, “Literacy and education in England, 1640-1900”, Past and Present , no. 42, 1969, p. 69-139; Richard Johnson, “Educational policy and social control in early Victorian England”, Past and Present , no. 49, 1970, p. 96-119.

22 See e.g. Michael Young (ed.), Knowledge and Control: New Directions for the Sociology of Education , London, Collier-Macmillan, 1971.

23 Gerald Bernbaum, “Sociological techniques and historical study”, in HES (ed.), History, Sociology and Education , p. 18. See also e.g. Peter Musgrave (ed.), Sociology, History and Education: A Reader , London, Methuen,1971.

24 See e.g. Alis Oancea, David Bridges, “Philosophy of education in the UK: the historical and contemporary tradition”, Oxford Review of Education , vol. 35, no. 5, 2009, p. 353-68.

25 Asa Briggs, “The study of the history of education”, History of Education , vol. 1, no. 1, 1972, p. 16.

26 Richard Aldrich, “A quiet revolution in the history of education”, Times Higher Educational Supplement , 3 May 1974, p. 14.

27 Roy Lowe, “History as propaganda: the strange uses of the history of education (1983-1990)”, in Peter Gordon, Richard Szreter (eds.), History of Education… , op. cit ., p. 225.

29 See Gary McCulloch, “Marketing the millennium: education for the 21 st century”, in Andy Hargreaves, Roy Evans (eds.), Beyond Educational Reform: Bringing Teachers Back In , Buckingham, Open University Press, 1996, p. 19-28.

30 Brian Simon, “The history of education”, in Paul Hirst (ed.), Educational Theory and its Foundation Disciplines , London, RKP, 1983, p. 65.

31 Richard Aldrich, “History of education in initial teacher education in England and Wales”, History of Education Society Bulletin , no. 45, 1990, p. 47.

32 Wendy Robinson, “Finding our professional niche: reinventing ourselves as twenty-first century historian of education”, in David Crook, Richard Aldrich (eds.), History of Education for the Twenty-First Century , op. cit ., p. 51.

36 William Richardson, “History, education and audience”, in David Crook, Richard Aldrich (eds.), History of Education for the Twenty-First Century , London, Institute of Education, p. 18.

38 See e.g. Robert Anderson, Schools and Universities in Victorian Scotland: Schools and Universities , Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1983; and Donald Withrington, “Scotland: a national educational system and ideals of citizenship”, Paedagogica Historica , vol. 29, no. 3, 1990, p. 699-710.

39 Peter Gordon, Denis Lawton, Curriculum Change in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries , Sevenoaks, Hodder and Stoughton, 1978, p. 2.

40 William Marsden, “Historical approaches to curriculum study”, in William Marsden (ed.), Post-War Curriculum Development , Leicester, HES, 1979, p. 94-95.

41 William Marsden, “Introduction”, in William Marsden (ed.), Post-War Curriculum Development , p. vii-viii.

42 Ivor Goodson (ed.), Social Histories of the Secondary Curriculum: Subjects for Study , London, Falmer, 1985; see also Ivor Goodson, The Making of Curriculum: Collected Essays , London, Falmer, 1988.

43 For further details see also Gary McCulloch, “Curriculum history and the history of education », in Pat Sikes, Yvonne Novakovic (eds.), Storying the Public Intellectual , London, Routledge, 2020, p. 91-99.

44 William Stephens, Education, Literacy and Society 1830-1870 : The Geography of Diversity in Provincial England , Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1987. See also David Mitch, The Rise of Popular Literacy in Victorian England : The Influence of Private Choice and Public Policy , Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.

45 David Vincent, Bread, Knowledge and Freedom: A Study of Nineteenth Century Working Class Autobiography , London, Methuen, 1982; David Vincent, Literacy and Popular Culture: England 1750-1914 , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989.

46 See e.g. Gary McCulloch, “Histories of urban education in the United Kingdom”, in Second International Handbook of Urban Education , Dordrecht, Springer, 2017, p. 1005-1019; David Reeder (ed.), Urban Education in the Nineteenth Century, London, Taylor and Francis, 1977; William Marsden, Unequal Educational Provision in England and Wales in Nineteenth-Century Britain , London, Woburn, 1987; Anna Davin, Growing up Poor: Home, School and Street in London, 1870-1914 , London, Rivers Oram Press, 1996.

47 E.g. Martin Wiener, English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit 1850-1980 , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981; Correlli Barnett, The Audit of War , London, Macmillan, 1986; Gary McCulloch, The Secondary Technical School: A Usable Past? , London, Falmer, 1989; Michael Sanderson, The Missing Stratum , London, Athlone Press, 1994.

48 E.g. June Purvis, “Working class women and adult education in nineteenth-century Britain”, History of Education , vol. 9, no. 3, 1980, p. 193-212; June Purvis, Hard Lessons: The Lives and Education of Working-Class Women in Nineteenth-Century Britain , Cambridge, Polity Press, 1989; Carol Dyhouse, Girls Growing Up in Late Victorian and Edwardian England , London, Routledge, 1981.

49 June Purvis, “The historiography of British education: a feminist critique”, in Ali Rattansi, David Reeder (eds.), Rethinking Radical Education , London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1992, p. 249-66.

51 Ian Grosvenor, Assimilating Identities: Racism and Educational Policy in Post 1945 Britain , London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1997.

52 Stephen Humphries, Hooligans or Rebels? An Oral History of Working Class Childhood and Youth , Oxford, Blackwell, 1981.

53 Philip Gardner, “The giant at the front: young teachers and corporal punishment in inter-war elementary schools”, History of Education , vol. 25, no. 2, 1996, p. 141-63; Philip Gardner, Peter Cunningham, “Oral history and teachers’ professional practice: a wartime turning point?”, Cambridge Journal of Education , vol. 27, no. 3, 1997, p. 331-42.

54 Cambridge Journal of Education , special issue, “Teachers’ lives: training and careers in historical perspective”, vol. 27, no. 3, 1997. See also Cambridge Journal of Education , special issue, “Teachers, biography and life history”, vol. 20, no. 3, 1990.

55 Anthony Mangan, Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981; Anthony Mangan, The Games Ethic and Imperialism , New York, Viking, 1986.

56 Detlef Muller, Fritz Ringer, Brian Simon (eds.), The Rise of the Modern Educational System: Structural Change and Social Reproduction, 1870-1920 , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1987.

58 Roy Lowe, “Writing the history of education”, in Roy Lowe (ed.), History of Education: Major Themes , London, Routledge, 2000, vol. 1, p. xlii-xliii.

59 David Crook, Richard Aldrich, “Introduction”, in David Crook, Richard Aldrich (eds.), History of Education for the Twenty-First Century , op. cit ., p. x.

61 Marc Depaepe, “What kind of history of education may we expect for the twenty-first century? Some comments on four recent readers in the field”, Paedagogica Historica , vol. 39, no. 1-2, 2003, p. 189.

62 History of Education , special issue, “Social change in the history of education: the British experience in international context”, vol. 36, no. 4-5, 2007.

63 See e.g. Jane Martin, Joyce Goodman, Women and Education 1800-1980 , London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004; Women’s History Review , special issue, “Revisioning the history of girls and women in the long 1950s”, vol. 26, no. 1, 2017; Women’s History Review , special issue, “Twists and turns in histories of women’s education”, vol. 29, no. 3, 2020.

64 See e.g. Joyce Goodman, “Troubling histories and theories: gender and the history of education”, History of Education, vol. 32, no. 2, 2003, p. 157-174; Stephanie Spencer, Gender, Work and Education in Britain in the 1950s , London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005; Ruth Watts, “Gendering the story: change in the history of education”, History of Education , vol. 34, no. 3, 2005, p. 225-241; Joyce Goodman, “The gendered politics of historical writing in History of Education ”, History of Education , vol. 41, no. 1, 2012, p. 9-24.

65 Oxford Review of Education , special issue, “Histories of learning in the modern world”, guest editors Gary McCulloch and Tom Woodin, vol. 36, no. 2, 2010; Mark Freeman, “Adult education history in Britain: past, present and future”, Paedagogica Historica , vol. 56, no. 3, 2020, Part I, p. 384-395; Part 2, p. 396-410.

66 David Crook, “Teacher education as a field of historical research: retrospect and prospect”, History of Education , vol. 41, no. 1, 2012, p. 57-72; Roy Lowe, “The changing role of the academic journal: the coverage of higher education in History of Education as a case study, 1972-2011”, History of Education , vol. 41, no. 1, 2012, p. 103-115.

67 E.g. Kevin Myers, “Immigrants and ethnic minorities in the history of education”, Paedagogica Historica , vol. 45, no. 6, 2009, p. 801-816; Kevin Myers, Struggles for a Past: Irish and Afro-Caribbean Histories in England, 1950-2000 , Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2015; Olivier Esteves, The “Desegregation” of English Schools: Bussing, Race and Urban Space, 1960s-80s , Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2018.

68 Felicity Armstrong, “Disability, education and social change in England since 1960” History of Education , vol. 36, no. 4-5, 2007, p. 551-568.

69 E.g. Pamela Dale, “Special education at Starcross before 1948”, History of Education , vol. 36, no. 1, 2007, p. 17-44; Jane Read, Jan Walmsley, “Historical perspectives on special education, 1890-1970”, Disability and Society , vol. 21, no. 5, 2006, p. 455-69; Kevin Myers, Anna Brown, “Mental deficiency: the diagnosis and after-care of special school leavers in early twentieth-century Birmingham (UK)”, Journal of Historical Sociology , vol. 18, no. 1-2, 2005, p. 72-98.

70 Derrick Armstrong, Experiences of Special Education: Re-Evaluating Policy and Practice through Life Stories , London, Routledge/Falmer, 2003.

71 See e.g. History of Education , special issue, “Theory and methodology in the history of education”, guest editors Gary McCulloch and Ruth Watts, vol. 32, no. 2, 2003.

72 E.g. Ulrike Mietzner, Kevin Myers, Nick Peim (eds.), Visual History: Images of Education , Berne, Peter Lang, 2005; Dierdre Raftery (ed.), Celebrating Teachers: A Visual History , London, Fil Rouge Press, 2016.

73 Martin Lawn, Ian Grosvenor, “‘When in doubt, preserve’: exploring the traces of teaching and material culture in English schools”, History of Education , vol. 30, no. 2, 2007, p. 117-127. See also e.g. History of Education , special issue, “Science, technologies and the material culture in the history of education”, vol. 40, no. 2, 2017, based on the 2015 HES annual conference, guest edited by Heather Ellis.

74 E.g. Gary McCulloch, “Sensing the realities of English middle-class education: James Bryce and the Schools Inquiry Commission, 1865-1868”, History of Education , vol. 40, no. 5, 2011, p. 599-613; and Ian Grosvenor, “Back to the future or towards a sensory history of schooling”, History of Education , vol. 41, no. 5, 2012, p. 675-687.

75 Richard Aldrich, “The three duties of the historian of education”, History of Education , vol. 32, no. 2, 2003, p. 133-43.

76 See e.g. Carol Smart, “Reconsidering the recent history of child sexual abuse, 1910-1960”, Journal of Social Policy , vol. 29, no. 1, 2000, p. 55-71; and Adrian Bingham, Lucy Delap, Louise Jackson, Louise Settle, “Historical child sexual abuse in England and Wales: the role of historians”, History of Education , vol. 45, no. 4, 2016, p. 411-29.

77 See Ian Grosvenor, Ruth Watts, “Urbanisation and education: the city as a light and beacon?”, Paedagogica Historica , vol. 39, no. 1-2, 2003, p. 1-4.

78 History of Education , special issue, “Centre and periphery – networks, space and geography in the history of education”, vol. 32, no. 3, 2003.

79 Paedagogica Historica , special issue, “‘Empires overseas’ and ‘Empires at home’: Postcolonial and transnational perspectives on social change in the history of education”, guest editors Joyce Goodman, Gary McCulloch and William Richardson, vol. 45, no. 6, 2009.

80 See Paedagogica Historica , special issue, “Education, war and peace”, guest editors Gary McCulloch and Georgina Brewis, vol. 52, no. 1-2, 2016.

81 See also Gary McCulloch, Steven Cowan, A Social History of Educational Studies and Research , London, Routledge, 2018, esp. Ch. 9.

82 Martin Lawn, John Furlong, “The disciplines of education in the UK: between the ghost and the shadow”, Oxford Review of Education , vol. 35, no. 5, 2009, p. 549-50.

83 History of Education , special issue, “Education and citizenship in modern Scotland”, vol. 38, no. 3, 2009; Robert. Anderson, Mark Freeman, Lindsay Paterson (eds.) The Edinburgh History of Education in Scotland , Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2015; Stephen McKinney, Raymond McCluskey (eds.), A History of Catholic Education and Schooling in Scotland: New Perspectives , London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

84 Gareth Elwyn Jones, “Perspectives from the brink of extinction: the fate of history of education study in Wales”, History of Education , vol. 42, no. 3, 2013, p. 381-95.

85 Joyce Goodman, Ian Grosvenor, “Educational research – history of education a curious case?”, Oxford Review of Education , vol. 35, no. 5, 2009, p. 601-616.

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Home / Essay Samples / Education / Inequality in Education / Education Inequality In Britain Today

Education Inequality In Britain Today

Category: World , Social Issues , Education
Topic: Great Britain , Inequality , Inequality in Education

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