If learning is a journey between worlds, school governing bodies have a crucial role to play in mediating them. By establishing a public space for the voice of different communities to be expressed and deliberated governing bodies enable schools to understand and engage the cultural sources that motivate young people to learn. This article draws…

This article sketches some implications for education of interpreting a key orientating idea of environmental education--sustainability--as a receptive-responsive frame of mind. It argues that, so interpreted, sustainability has extensive implications for the life of schools as places of learning, particularly with regard to the implicit scientism…

This article provides a brief overview of current approaches to education and concludes that none of these is sufficient to meet the challenges that now face the human race. It argues instead for a new concept of education for survival. (Contains 1 note.)

This article contrasts the collapse of the twin political certainties of the 20th century--"scientific socialism" (1989) and "scientific capitalism" (2008). Such a collapse restores Uncertainty to her throne, and brings back the need to radically rethink political possibilities for the future. (Contains 1 note.)

This article summarises the policies relating to families, children and education which were presented to the electorate by the three main parties in their manifestos, together with the policies listed in the Coalition's "Programme for Government". The author concludes with a few observations on the future of state education in England.

Attitudes towards environmental issues are influenced by many factors, including what is learned in formal educational settings such as schools and more informally, through such sources as the media, interaction with family and friends and our everyday lived experiences. This study investigated children's ideas about the environment and their…

Low-attaining schools have been targeted by government for closure and transformation into academies. This article argues that opposition to academies is necessary but not sufficient. It is vital to do more than simply defend the status quo. In the city of Leicester an alternative vision for high-quality education, local authority led and grounded…

The author argues that the debate on declining social mobility has neglected the role of the examination and testing system. At all levels of education working class children are failing and middle class children achieving whatever ability levels are involved. The article focusses on the A-Level examination and the controversy over the way the…

The last government's emphasis on results statistics--implicit in its systems for holding teachers to account--as the be-all-and-end-all of a good education, reflected the largely undebated victory of one set of possible aims for schooling over another. Pragmatism beat idealism, as schools' priorities were reshaped along similarly calculating…

This article reviews the development of Private Finance Initiative schemes in the United Kingdom, and reflects on how profitable opportunities for private financiers and construction companies were created at the expense of the public sector. (Contains 72 notes.)

In November 2009 the current Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, gave a speech at the Centre for Policy Studies in which he set out the Conservative Party's priorities for education. This article explores some of the proposals in his speech, with particular references to initial teacher education and his attraction to Nordic and US…

The author considers the prospect that the new Liberal-Conservative coalition Government will use the crisis of the largest public debt since the Second World War to contract and restructure education and public services, and discusses what cuts and changes are likely to happen.

This article restates the needs for a comprehensive system of education to be intolerant of "ability"-thinking, and wonders why so few government ministers are prepared to reveal the type of school to which they send their children.

This article is a contribution to the debate in England about the Coalition Government's policy to encourage interested parties to set up Swedish inspired Free Schools. The article argues, that in order to understand how Free Schools in Sweden operate, it is important to see them in the context of the Swedish school system. The article presents…

In this article the author offers a few interim thoughts on how those of us campaigning for a comprehensive future should think about, and publicly respond to, the education policies of the current Coalition government and the new direction of the Labour Party. (Contains 1 note.)