H. A. L. Fisher came from an influential family, studied at Oxford and in France and Germany, and became an Oxford academic with a strong interest in public affairs. In 1912 he became Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University and four years later was recruited by the new British Prime Minister to become his Minister of Education. In that office he…

Why was Oxford the home of the mandarin and why has the era of the mandarin come to an end? The era of the mandarin was inaugurated by T. H. Green, who sought, through the gospel of citizenship, to provide a philosophy for an age of religious doubt. Green's moralism served in Oxford as a substitute for the social sciences, which came to be…

This paper examines the work in education of Michael Sadler (1861-1943). It covers his early years in Oxford, his time as director of the Department of Special Inquiries and Reports, his periods as professor of education in Manchester and as vice-chancellor in Leeds, and his return to Oxford as Master of University College, and it assesses the…

Certain types of university, denominated as "elite"--Oxford is certainly an example--are often thought to have a structural or cultural capacity to imbue their members with a particular social or moral mission, or ideology. History is also a factor, insofar as the age of a university, which usually produces a lengthy relationship with other kinds…

The National Numeracy Strategy was introduced in England in 1998 to reform mathematics teaching in all primary schools. The strategy has been widely implemented and this paper investigates some of the changes that are evident after the first five years. Reporting a comparison between studies in 1998 and 2003 of pupils' calculating strategies for…

This article provides an illustration of how multilevel modelling, which is the standard method for assessing the "school effect" in school effectiveness research, can be combined with the regression-discontinuity approach. While multilevel modelling yields only estimates of relative school effects (differences between schools), the…

This study is the first of its kind to concentrate upon the views of secondary staff towards attendance issues within two distinct, but similarly-sized, authorities in England. The fieldwork was sponsored by the two authorities in accordance with their specific needs and conducted in 2003. As part of this fieldwork, 40 headteachers, deputy heads,…

The contemporary relevance of the German philosopher of vocational education, Georg Kerschensteiner, is first indicated in general terms in relation to current debates and policies. Kerschensteiner's main ideas are then outlined. There is a discussion of his relationship with progressivism, his ideas about learning and the importance of practical…

In 1993, the UK Economic and Social Research Council funded the Parental and School Choice Interaction (PACSI) Study into the marketisation of education, conducted by the author along with Philip Woods and Ron Glatter of the Open University. The findings from the PACSI study highlighted the localised and complex nature of markets in education and…

This paper explores changes in the pre-school education market in England since the Labour Government came into office in 1997. It focuses in particular on quality, availability and affordability and in so doing explores issues of equity. It will be argued that whilst overall levels of pre-school educational provision have increased, there are…

Romanticism's valuing of love and the life of the imagination, combined with its belief in human potential taken heroically to and beyond its limits, provides a way of addressing differently and fruitfully certain issues to do with pedagogy in schools, making in particular better sense of what it means to be an effective teacher and a productive…

Twelve years ago Blatchford and Mortimore's authoritative review of class size research appeared in this journal. They concluded that a major problem with class size research was the lack of detailed studies of complex classroom processes that might mediate class size effects on pupils' learning. This article reviews two UK class size reviews and…

The late John Wilson has long been a champion of education as a human undertaking with an integrity of its own, as distinct from one that is essentially subordinate to extrinsic interests and influences (e.g. religious, political, commercial). He has also been a fearless critic of forms of thinking that he regarded as failing to articulate…

In his "Perspectives on the Philosophy of Education" John Wilson laments the confusion that surrounds the current state of the philosophy of education. Unlike other branches of philosophy, he claims, it is not clear what the philosophy of education is about, and a snapshot of current work in the field reveals its lack of coherence. To remedy this…

This paper distinguishes the key dimensions of professional value in teaching under three headings: (i) deontic norms; (ii) aretaic norms; and (iii) technical norms. With regard to (i) it is held that aspects of the professional conduct of teachers are properly (though not exclusively) implicated in the observance of moral principles and…