In terms of reform of domestic policy, the Conservative election campaign of 2010 was predicated on the idea of citizen (or consumer) power and a reduction in the role of the government in decisions effecting people's lives. The Academies Act appears to be taking this idea in the opposite direction. In comparing and contrasting the provisions of…

"Every Child Matters" (ECM), an agenda for agencies working with children, was introduced following the tragic death of Victoria Climbie in 2001. Lord Laming produced a report that proposed a new way of working for all professionals working with children. In June 2003, under a Labour government, the first Children's minister was appointed and the…

In this article, it is argued that the terms education and training are different, but not mutually exclusive. Where post-graduate certificate courses are concerned, training forms only part of the preparation of new teachers. (Contains 1 note.)

In this article the author considers some aspects of the egregious error or "howler". What effects does the "howler" have as a social practice? What questions are raised when a teacher shares beyond his or her own school a student's mistake for the amusement of others?

The global capitalist crisis is impacting dramatically across nation states and their economies. Although a complete collapse of the system appears to have been avoided by decisions to take co-ordinated interventionist action to shore up short term demand, governments have generally rejected the more radical actions required to address the…

In the decades after the Second World War, the British Government had a democratic, independent and locally administered education service that was recognised as crucial to the post-war political, moral and economic recovery of the country. However, since that time, the independence of schools and local communities has been increasingly usurped,…

Two official reports were published in 2009, each potentially important to the immediate and medium-term future of primary education and each (in the author's view) potentially damaging. The conservative nature of the reports' proposals are outlined in this article as are the opportunities missed for a fundamental reappraisal of the primary…

The methodological approaches that were used in this research were ethnographic, quantitative and analysis of post-compulsory education policy documents 1945-2007. The article aims to explore the issues of ethics in lifelong learning, and an alternative approach to the analysis of the impact of lifelong learning policy, by focusing research…

The Report of the Nuffield Review of 14-19 education, described by its Lead Director Professor Richard Pring of Oxford University in the last number of FORUM (Volume 51, Number 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/forum.2009.51.2.197), highlights the increasing use of what can be described as "edu-dabble" by sectors of the education establishment.

This article examines the findings of the recent London School of Economics RISE Report looking at policies relating to secondary school admissions in England.

This article points out that, in the United Kingdom, parents have a right to state a preference for a particular school which is not the same as a right to choose. (Contains 1 note.)

While Colin Richards' article is a trenchant analysis of the big themes and missed opportunities of the Rose Report, this response examines some of the small print. It concludes that the document is disfigured by many minor blemishes, and is also fatally flawed by a crude misapprehension of the nature of progress and the purpose of education.

Early Years provision in England has historically been fragmented and under-funded. In seeking to address this situation, New Labour has developed a range of Early Years initiatives with the principal aim of tackling poverty and disadvantage. This article traces the recent history of Early Years provision and critically explores the extent to…

This article reports on current campaigning against the British government's policy of opening hundreds of Academy schools.

This article is part of the author's current research into science teachers' perspectives on the theory of evolution and its teaching in the classroom. Anti-evolutionary views have recently become very prominent in the context of science education, with almost one third of science teachers in the United Kingdom agreeing that creationism should be…