Schooling and Social Change Since 1760

Schooling and Social Change in England since 1760 offers a powerful critique of the situation of British education today and shows the historical processes that have helped generate the crisis confronting policymakers and practitioners at the present time. The book identifies the key phases of economic and social change since 1760 and shows how the education system has played a central role in embedding, sustaining and deepening social distinctions in Britain. Covering the whole period since the first industrialization, it gives a detailed account of the development of a deeply divided education system that leads to quite separate lifestyles for those from differing backgrounds. The book develops arguments of inequalities through a much-needed account of the changes in education. This book will be of great interest for academics, scholars and post-graduate students in the field of history of education and education politics. It will also appeal to administrators, teachers and policy makers, especially those interested in the historical development of schooling.

Roy Lowe is one of Britain's best-known historians of education, having published extensively over a long period on the history of schools and universities. He was for some years President of the UK History of Education Society and was awarded an OBE for services to education in 2002.

Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Education in England: intentions and outcomes Industrialisation and education The characteristics of English society Chapter 1 An age of revolutions: 1760-1830 'The ever-whirling wheel of Change' Schooling in the Eighteenth Century A new context for education Planning for social stratification Evangelicals and the Sunday school movement The beginnings of systematisation: the monitorial schools Socialists, utopians and education The first stirrings of the State Embedding inequalities Chapter 2 The workshop of the world: 1830-1895 'In a progressive country change is constant' 'Governing as little as they could': schooling the poor in Victorian England Systematising superiority: the education of a new elite Creating a new middle class: the reform of the endowed schools Rebuilding the ivory tower 'Places of moral rather than intellectual training': the schooling of middle class girls Chapter 3 Embedding privilege: the charitable status of elite schools A neglected issue Charitable status: the realities The origins of charitable status The need for change Moves towards reform 'A great concession': the establishment of the Charity Commission The formative years of the Charity Commission Long-term implications Chapter 4 Schooling for a changing world: 1895-1914 The Victorian legacy A new administration for education Towards a new elementary education Regulating secondary education Educating the Edwardian elite Chapter 5 1914-1939: Schools fit for heroes? War and its aftermath Conflicting aspirations Economising on education Planning educational futures Schooling the common people Gradations of schooling: educating elites between the Wars Chapter 6 'The safeguard of social stratification': 1939-1979 Schooling during the Second World War 'The search for freedom from want': the post-War years The primary concern: building a new sector of education The false dawn of comprehensivisation: secondary schooling, 1945-79 'For all those who are qualified by ability and attainment...and who wish to do so': the post-War expansion of higher education A note of caution Chapter 7 Neo-Liberalism and multi-nationalism: 1979 to the present A novel context? Implementing the new politics of education The realities of change: the primary sector The outsourcing of secondary education The private sector How higher education was marketized Conclusion Schooling and social class Children as victims Implications