Education: The Basics

Kay Wood

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136673689
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica generale

@text: Everyone knows that education is important, we are confronted daily by discussion of it in the media and by politicians, but how much do we really know about education? Education: The Basics is a lively and engaging introduction to education as an academic subject, taking into account both theory and practice. Covering the schooling system, the nature of knowledge and methods of teaching, this book analyses the viewpoints of both teachers and pupils. Key questions are answered, including:

• What is education and what is it for?
• Where does education take place?
• How do we learn?
• Who are the students?
• What is being taught in schools and universities and why?
• What is the state of education across the world?

With further reading throughout, Education: The Basics is essential for all those embarking on undergraduate courses in Education and Education Studies, and for those with an involvement in teaching at all levels.

Education and Schooling

Most people link the idea of education with that of schooling. Pupils go to school and are taught a set curriculum. They take examinations and formal tests and leave school with or without certificates. They have received an education. This is a perception of school which many people can relate to and is thought to be what ‘normally’ happens in most Western societies. The definition itself suggests that education is largely a methodical approach to a body of knowledge agreed by relevant experts and then delivered to willing and unwilling learners alike. The definition becomes recognisable as what goes on in schools in the UK on a daily basis. Both state and private schools employ a curriculum, taught in stages to pupils of similar ages and with similar abilities. On closer scrutiny, however, this easy-to-understand description of schooling does not apply everywhere. Scandinavian countries, Norway Sweden, Finland and Denmark, for example have a different view of education from that of the rest of Europe. They organise schools and curricula in different ways, have different methods of teaching and put less stress on tests and examinations.

Formal Education in the UK

More than 90 per cent of children in the UK attend state-run primary or secondary schools.¹ The remainder go to privately controlled schools which range from elite public schools to evangelical Christian and Muslim schools as well as those professing an alternative approach to education, such as Steiner or Montessori schools. A growing number of children are home-educated. Education is compulsory for all from the age of five, but large numbers of children are now in pre-school settings: nursery, play school or similar establishment. For the majority, schooling begins at age three in pre-school, is continued in primary school up to the age of eleven and continues in secondary school until the official school-leaving age of sixteen.

Post-sixteen education is termed ‘further education’ (FE) and increasing numbers of pupils are staying on until age eighteen, some of them helped by government grants although the future of these is currently in question. Education for this age group may happen in schools which have sixth forms, or it may be pursued in colleges of further education. FE institutions teach General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) courses but they also offer a range of other courses including work-based learning and community-based activities. Establishments which offer degree-level qualifications are termed institutions of ‘higher education’ (HE) and these include universities and some colleges. In recent times there has been a blurring of the boundaries between all these institutions so that it is now possible to study for degrees in colleges of further education. The creation of the new 14–19 curriculum in England and Wales with the amalgamation of academic and vocational skills has also changed the rigid division between secondary and further education.

The one thing that can be said with certainty is that there is little uniformity within the UK education system. Since political devolution in the late 1990s, things which apply in England may not apply in Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland too have different systems. Within England itself there are diverse arrangements: most children attend primary and then secondary schools, but some parts of the country have a system of first, middle and upper secondary schools.

State Schools

Most schools in the UK are state-funded and parents do not pay fees. The money to run schools comes from taxes, but not all schools are funded in the same way and it is difficult to speak of a universal system. The majority of schools receive money from their local authority which comes from direct government grants and council taxes collected from all householders. The local authority decides how the funds are allocated to schools, but governors and head teachers have considerable power to decide how the money is spent. Local authorities remain responsible for the maintenance of school buildings and for ensuring adequate school places for all potential pupils.

In Wales and Scotland practically all schools are funded by their local authority, but in England an increasing number of schools answer directly to the Secretary of State for Education or to businesses and private donors. Academies are a recent development – state-run schools which receive a general annual grant from the Secretary of State for Education. A similar system is likely to apply to the recently instituted ‘free schools’ which are discussed more fully in Chapter 6. The questions about school funding are not just a matter of how much money each school gets: it is also important to consider who provides and controls the finance as they are likely to have considerable influence over how schools are run and what is taught in them.

Private Schools

The sons of the wealthy have been schooled from the earliest times. The private school, Harrow, for example, began admitting pupils for the first time in the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century the growth of middle class wealth led to the rapid expansion of private schooling for boys. Many of England’s notable public schools together with a large number of independent fee-paying schools were set up at this time. As the twentieth century progressed private education was extended to cater for girls. In addition a small number of other private schools offer a specific religious education. There are, for example, 126 full-time Muslim schools in England, the vast majority of which are privately financed. Catholic and Anglican schools, in contrast, are mostly state-funded. Private schools overall cater for about 7 per cent of the pupil population.²

State Education in the UK

Most people when they think about schools get an immediate picture of buildings – maybe old, maybe new – gates and fences, a flashing belisha beacon, perhaps with the lollipop lady, and the surrounding roads clogged up with traffic in the morning and mid afternoon. In any neighbourhood one is not far from a school and much of community life revolves around it. They are important landmarks, but also taken-for-granted institutions that we have come to believe have always been there and are now permanent features of modern life. It is easy to forget that schools are relatively new and have only existed in their current form for the last 140 years. The world seemed to have progressed satisfactorily without them for thousands of years prior to this; why was it necessary to institute them? In order to answer this question it is essential to understand a little of our history and the kind of state and economic system we live in.

The history of educational developments in England and Wales in the twentieth century is very much the history of state schooling. It is the story of the creation of a formal system of primary, secondary and further education and of the expansion of universities and other forms of higher education. Successive governments have decided who should have access to schooling, how it should be organised, where it should take place and even what should be taught and how. The Scottish education system from the beginning has been separate from that of England and Wales, but has largely ploughed a similar furrow. Summarising the history of education over 140 years is not easy, but it possible to identify four key phases in the development of state education in England and Wales. These are summarised in Table 1.

Table 1 Four key phases in the development of state education in England and Wales

Date	Changes made	Outcome
1870 Education Act	National system of elementary education. Compulsory primary education for all children aged five to thirteen (extended to fourteen in 1918)	Majority stayed in primary school, secondary schools for wealthier only
1944 Education Act	Secondary education for all. Compulsory secondary education up to age of fifteen (extended to sixteen in 1972)	Tripartite system established. Children took eleven-plus test and were allocated to ‘appropriate’ secondary school
1970s onwards	Comprehensive education. Removal of the tripartite system. In most areas children went to their local secondary school	Far more pupils gained certification, but comprehensive schools criticised from a variety of perspectives
1988 Education Act	Control of schooling moved from local government to central government. Introduction of the local management of schools (LMS)	National Curriculum and testing introduced together with tighter inspection regime. Parental choice of schools

A quick glance at the table suggests that the story has been straightforward and followed a predictable trajectory. More and more children have gained access to education and stayed for longer and longer lengths of time in school. As increasing amounts of money have been spent on education, successive governments have intervened in the educational process to ensure that taxpayers’ money is wisely spent. It all seems logical, self-evident and beyond dispute in the twenty-first century, but looked at in a little more depth this summary is simplistic. The path has not been clear-cut. Many of the reforms have been fought over and people have had widely divergent views as to what education is for and what form it should take. In order to understand some of these differences it is necessary to look at what part the state plays in education and how political philosophies have affected everything from the organisation of schools to the content of the curriculum.

Getting Educated about Education

Any mention of politics frequently produces a negative effect in students. ‘I am here to learn about education’ or ‘I only want to find out how to teach children to read’ are frequent statements. ‘If I wanted to know about politics I would have taken a different course, read another book.’ But this is to miss the point. Everyday life in classrooms is fundamentally affected by political beliefs and actions. The things teachers do in schools on a daily basis are informed by political opinion. Even such a seemingly innocent activity as the teaching of reading is subject to political influence, with politicians recommending, and sometimes seeking to enforce, the ‘correct’ way to do it. It is only by understanding and questioning these beliefs that we can come to a decision as to what we think the best course of action is. Digging below the surface is essential. Moreover, the story behind the table above and the events which accompanied it is interesting, exciting and fraught with controversy. To begin at the beginning we need to understand a little about the nature of the state we live in and the political philosophies which underpin it.

What is the State?

The key factor in the development of education in the UK in the last 100 or so years has been the role that the state has played; but what exactly is the state and why does it play such a decisive part in all our lives? The state is everywhere; it regulates the conditions of our lives from birth to death. It is very difficult to define, and yet most of us have a sense of its power. It is essentially a group of institutions which together constitute the legitimate authority of any given country. The institutions consist of the government which passes the laws, the civil service which both advises the government and puts its policies in to practice and the judiciary which sees that the laws are enforced. The relationships between the various elements of the state are complicated, but in England it is undoubtedly the government of the day which has the most power. The state is, therefore, never neutral: it represents the views and ideological perspectives of the political party in power.

In the UK, national governments have a strong effect on education. The decisions they make reflect their own political convictions but also beliefs which are current in the country at the time. Looked at simply, there have been two key philosophical ideas which have underpinned British politics for the past 300 years: the first is ‘liberalism’ which recently has developed a new form called neo-liberalism and the second is ‘social democracy’. It is helpful to understand the difference between these two philosophies because they throw light on what has happened in twentieth century education.

Liberalism

Liberalism has been an important philosophy which has had a strong effect on politics in both the UK and the United States. At one time or another, its beliefs have informed all political parties in Britain. Even more than this, over the years it has become a key ingredient in the way Britain views itself. Central to its philosophy is a strong belief in the rights of the individual which must be protected. Individuals must be free to make money and earn their livings as far as possible without interference from the state. The corollary of this is that the individual must take personal responsibility for his or her own actions. This tradition has favoured the individual over the state and has tended to see the state as only playing a minimal role in national life, a necessary evil.

A belief in individualism has also brought with it tolerance of hierarchy. There has been a tendency to accept that in any society where the individual is paramount there will inevitably be inequalities in wealth and income. These are considered justifiable because the onus rests on the individual to improve his or her lot in life; life is seen as a ladder all must climb. Some have naturally more talent than others and some put in more effort. This is the way of the world. In education policy it has contributed to a belief in elitism and to separate schools for children of different abilities. It has meant that the pursuit of equality has not been at the top of its agenda and this has fundamentally affected the kind of education system the UK has developed.

Socialism and Social Democracy

Socialism arrived at the end of the nineteenth century to challenge liberal ideas. It appeared in many different forms but in all cases there was a belief that the individualism of liberalism was unjust. Some socialists recognised the importance of the individual, but not at the expense of the wider community. Individual actions could not be sanctioned if they harmed others or led to the suffering of society as a whole. In the nineteenth century the unfettered power of capitalism had produced extremes of freedom and wealth for some and unbearable misery and enslavement for the rest. Socialists thought it was necessary to have strong state intervention to protect the weak.

In Western European countries socialist beliefs were transformed into social democracy. The capitalist system of production was accepted, but the avowed aim of social democrats was to transform capitalism into a more ethical enterprise where the needs of the many rather than the few are fully catered for. The state would be instrumental in achieving this transformation. The state is thus not the enemy, but rather the defender, of the public good. It has a duty to see that all citizens can participate in the social and economic life of the nation. People in positions of power must accept that they have responsibilities to others.

In the Scandinavian countries, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, these beliefs have infused society since World War II and prevailed whichever political party has been in power. They have produced systems of education which are strongly rooted in equality of opportunity for all. In the UK for a brief period post-1945 social democracy took hold and informed educational policy, but this way of thinking has not to date been a strong part of the way British people see themselves and Britain appears to remain largely in the liberal tradition.

This then is the background against which decisions about education have been taken. With these things in mind it is now appropriate to consider the four phases of state schooling in the UK to date and the key issues which have informed the kind of schooling we now have.

Four Key Phases in the Development of State Education in England and Wales

Elementary Education for all: The 1870 Education Act

The first landmark moment in formal education in England and Wales was Forster’s 1870 Education Act. It made elementary education compulsory for all children. Of course, schools existed prior to1870 but they tended to be very much on an ad hoc basis: priva...