It is now nearly thirty years since Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative administration introduced the Assisted Places Scheme (their first education policy) and over ten years since New Labour abolished it. The Scheme, which was designed to provide a ladder of opportunity for academically able students from poor backgrounds to attend private…

This paper discusses the sociological issues raised by a recent study on school councils in England. This study revealed a lack of clarity among policy-makers and schools regarding the purpose of provision for pupil voice. The paper argues that this allows important questions about the functions of pupil voice to be avoided. While suggesting ways…

Discusses Logo, an education philosophy and accompanying family of programming languages. Explores Logo in the institutional and organizational cultures of United States and United Kingdom mainstream schools after its introduction in the early 1980s. Addresses how Logo was received in the educational arena and implicated in the politics of…

Compares different levels of student involvement among "academically able" students at two schools. Uses data from these to make connections among the cultures of the schools, family perceptions, and subsequent forms of student involvement. Argues that these connections provide a way to understand facets of respondents' orientations to schooling.…

A study of upper-middle-class college students in England who responded with "resistance" to their schooling showed that the students' challenges do not constitute effective resistances to prevailing patterns of class or gender relations, i.e., their challenges are not transformative. (RM)

Reviews new American research on the sociology of curriculum characterized by intellectual and methodological pluralism, theory that is integrated with empirical research, and a view that educational interventions can contribute to social change. Research on school texts, the hidden curriculum, and the curriculum-in-use can stimulate British…