FORUM

Editorial. The Enduring Problem of Fixed Ability: but is a new conversation beginning?,

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: Editorial. The Enduring Problem of Fixed Ability: but is a new conversation beginning?,
Author: Mary Jane Drummond; Patrick Yarker
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 3-7
ABSTRACT Not available

The Brian Simon Memorial Lecture 2012, Education as Reconstruction: another way of looking at primary education

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: The Brian Simon Memorial Lecture 2012, Education as Reconstruction: another way of looking at primary education
Author: Michael Armstrong
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 9-29
ABSTRACT Not available

'The Blue Table Means You Don't Have a Clue': the persistence of fixed-ability thinking and practices in primary mathematics in English schools

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: 'The Blue Table Means You Don't Have a Clue': the persistence of fixed-ability thinking and practices in primary mathematics in English schools
Author: RACHEL MARKS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 31-44
ABSTRACT The use of structured ability grouping is increasing in English primary schools and is regularly seen in primary mathematics classrooms. Ability is a normalised discourse with beliefs that some individuals are 'born to do maths' permeating society and infiltrating school practices. In this article, observation and interview data illustrate the persistence of fixed-ability thinking, even in situations where explicit ability-grouping practices are not used. The data analysis suggests a mismatch between mixed-ability practices and fixed-ability thinking, and the article argues that change will be difficult.

Surprise in Schools: Martin Buber and dialogic schooling

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: Surprise in Schools: Martin Buber and dialogic schooling
Author: JULIAN STERN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 45-58
ABSTRACT The philosopher Martin Buber described the central role of surprise in education. Surprise is not an alternative to planning and order in schools, and it is not even an alternative to repetitive practice. It is, instead, that which must be allowed to occur in any dialogic encounter. Schooling that is creative and filled with hope will also be surprising; schooling that is wholly predetermined, certain, and perfect (at least in its own eyes), will be unsurprising - and also uneducational. Darwinian theories of evolution by natural selection are similar to communitarian anarchist challenges to political wishes for precise, centralised, planning. And the necessity of genetic mutation alongside largely repetitive copying, in such theories, provides a model for the necessity of surprise even alongside repetitive, transmissive, and copied work in schools. Surprise overcomes the potential of schools to be soulless institutions. It is promoted here as a defining characteristic of truly educational, dialogic schooling.

Beyond 'Ability': some European alternatives

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: Beyond 'Ability': some European alternatives
Author: TERRY WRIGLEY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 59-72
ABSTRACT This article draws on European approaches to differentiation that do not entail fatalistic determinism. It describes two challenging initiatives in Denmark, where democratic learning and learning for democracy are enshrined in law. Other examples come from Germany, from the Bielefeld laboratory school and a sixth form college, where planning for diversity is the starting point for curriculum development.

The Possibilities and Difficulties of Teaching Secondary Mathematics in All-attainment Groups

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: The Possibilities and Difficulties of Teaching Secondary Mathematics in All-attainment Groups
Author: GWEN TRESIDDER; ANNE WATSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 73-84
ABSTRACT It is a well-established norm in England that secondary school mathematics is taught in groups categorised by prior attainment. It is therefore worthwhile to report alternative practices of all-attainment teaching - but these are rare. In this article, we report aspects of all-attainment mathematics teaching in a secondary school that has maintained this practice as its norm over a considerable time, including in recent years, when a hierarchical approach to measuring mathematics learning has become the norm for accountability purposes. The teaching described here takes account of the needs and progress of different students within a common curriculum focus, and we identify key principles behind it. The article is intended to contribute to a record of all-attainment grouping practices in mathematics in England, so that these practices are not lost.

Teaching and the Individuality of Everybody

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: Teaching and the Individuality of Everybody
Author: HOLLY LINKLATER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 85-94
ABSTRACT This article presents a study in which the author researched her own practice as the teacher of a reception class in a large primary school in England. The research focussed on the challenge of articulating what was tacitly or intuitively known: how, and why, the myriad of choices and decisions of which teaching is constituted could be made and justified. The author considers the significance of the class as a community; the relationship between everybody and children as individuals. A consistent and coherent principled stance was identified, articulated in terms of attention to imagination. The article discusses the significance of this as the means by which the individuality of everybody could be perceived.

Preparing Teachers to Work with Everybody: a curricular approach to the reform of teacher education

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: Preparing Teachers to Work with Everybody: a curricular approach to the reform of teacher education
Author: LANI FLORIAN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 95-102
ABSTRACT This article reports on a curricular approach to teacher education using the ideas in Learning without Limits to prepare teachers to enter a profession in which they take responsibility for the learning and achievement of all learners. Key aspects of Scotland's Inclusive Practice Project (IPP) are described and the role of university-based teacher education in supporting and challenging practice-based learning in schools is discussed.

What Makes an Inclusive Teacher? Can Fish Climb Trees? Mapping the European Agency Profile of Inclusive Teachers to the English System

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: What Makes an Inclusive Teacher? Can Fish Climb Trees? Mapping the European Agency Profile of Inclusive Teachers to the English System
Author: JOHN CORNWALL
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 103-114
ABSTRACT This article examines whether or not teachers working in an inherently exclusive education system can in fact be 'inclusive teachers'. The author draws on work done over the past three years in a pan-European Teacher Education project highly committed to notions of social and educational cohesion and equity, and challenges both fixed and hierarchical notions of ability, valuing all learners equally. The development of a pan-European Profile of Inclusive Teachers serves as an indirect challenge to the legitimacy of politicians and executive bodies in England for lack of cohesion and failing to establish some kind of equity and inclusion for young people.

Differentiation, Resistance and Courage: at work in the infant school

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: Differentiation, Resistance and Courage: at work in the infant school
Author: ANNABELLE DIXON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 115-120
ABSTRACT Annabelle Dixon was co-editor of FORUM from the summer of 1998 until her untimely death in May 2005. The article we reproduce below is based on an article that first appeared in FORUM in 1984, Volume 26, Number 2, with the title 'Divided We Rule'. At that time, she was a practising infant teacher, and deeply concerned about the ways in which the widespread practice of differentiation affected young children's learning. The version printed here has been extended, edited and retitled, drawing on a longer, later version, unpublished as far as we know, which she circulated to friends and colleagues in 1986.

An Alternative Approach to School Development: the children are the evidence

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: An Alternative Approach to School Development: the children are the evidence
Author: MARY JANE DRUMMOND; SUSAN HART; MANDY SWANN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 121-132
ABSTRACT In this article, the authors describe the alternative approach to school development taken by the head teacher and staff of a primary school in Hertfordshire. Their approach is based on a resolutely optimistic and anti-determinist view of every child's capacity to learn, and their commitment to working as a school-wide community of learners. The article illustrates how the culture, policies and structures of the whole school were harnessed to the process of transformative change, and shows how staff members were given the support that enabled them to play their full part in bringing about these changes. It demonstrates how, when people are learning together, the power of the collective strengthens the learning capacity of everybody.

From Defective Loafers to Ignorant Yobs: low attainers in a global knowledge economy

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: From Defective Loafers to Ignorant Yobs: low attainers in a global knowledge economy
Author: SALLY TOMLINSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 133-142
ABSTRACT In a global and increasingly 'knowledge-driven' economy where even semi-skilled jobs require qualifications, what may be done with and for young people whose attainment in school is low? This article draws on recent research with head teachers, college principals and administrators in English local authorities, combined with material gathered on visits to a number of foreign countries, to outline the issues. It illuminates that successive English governments have failed to provide a coherent system of vocational education.

Ability and Mathematics: the mindset revolution that is reshaping education

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: Ability and Mathematics: the mindset revolution that is reshaping education
Author: JO BOALER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 143-152
ABSTRACT Recent scientific evidence demonstrates both the incredible potential of the brain to grow and change and the powerful impact of growth mindset messages upon students' attainment. Schooling practices, however, particularly in England, are based upon notions of fixed ability thinking which limits students' attainment and increases inequality. This article reviews evidence for brain plasticity, the importance of mindset and the ways that mindset messages may be communicated through classroom and grouping practices.

'Can I have me on here?': 'ability' and the language of pupil-progress

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: 'Can I have me on here?': 'ability' and the language of pupil-progress
Author: PATRICK YARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 153-160
ABSTRACT The flip-side of teaching-as-delivery is assessment-as-ventriloquism. Required to describe pupils and their progress through the language of Level Descriptors and exam grade criteria, any teacher risks losing her voice. This article notes the hierarchising and normalising intention of currently authorised versions of assessment, and looks for a countervailing practice and language.

Valuing Choice as an Alternative to Fixed-ability Thinking and Teaching in Primary Mathematics

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: Valuing Choice as an Alternative to Fixed-ability Thinking and Teaching in Primary Mathematics
Author: AMY MILIK; MARK BOYLAN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 161-172
ABSTRACT This article offers a personal account of a primary mathematics teacher's current practice and how it developed through participation in a professional development programme. This alternative to fixed-ability teaching is based on creating opportunities for learners to exercise choice and on an understanding of mathematics as connected. Key influences in the development of practice have been research evidence and theory, engagement with mathematics and alternative practices as a learner, and space and encouragement to reflect and make choices as a teacher. The account is structured in the form of a dialogue between the authors.

BOOK REVIEWS

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:42 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEWS
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2013 Volume: 55 Issue: 1 Pages: 173-176
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:15 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Michael Fielding
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 3 Pages: 347-353
ABSTRACT Not available

Readiness, Partnership, a Meeting Place? Some Thoughts on the Possible Relationship between Early Childhood and Compulsory School Education

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:15 GMT

Title: Readiness, Partnership, a Meeting Place? Some Thoughts on the Possible Relationship between Early Childhood and Compulsory School Education
Author: PETER MOSS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 3 Pages: 355-368
ABSTRACT At a time when the relationship between early childhood and compulsory school education is high on the policy agenda, this article questions the dominant, often taken-for-granted, relationship - school readiness; and offers two alternatives, a strong and equal partnership and the vision of a meeting place. Both are potentially transformative, inviting and welcoming critical thinking about compulsory school education as well as early childhood education.

Neither National Nor a Curriculum?

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:15 GMT

Title: Neither National Nor a Curriculum?
Author: ROBIN ALEXANDER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 3 Pages: 369-384
ABSTRACT This article examines the government's view, as revealed in its June 2012 National Curriculum proposals, of the purposes and character of the primary curriculum as a whole. The proposals are found to be deficient in a number of respects: in their naive, selective and inflated use of international evidence; in their treatment of aims as no more than cosmetic; in their impoverished take on culture, knowledge and values; in their reduction of educational standards to test performance in the 3Rs; in their perpetuation of the damaging Victorian legacy of a two-tier curriculum; and in their characterisation of spoken language, despite what has long been known about its vital role in development, learning and teaching, as little more than 'idle chatter'. In sum, the proposals are judged to betray contempt for other than politically-compliant evidence and to fall seriously short of what a national curriculum minimally entails.

Omnishambles: reactions to the second year of Coalition education policies

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:15 GMT

Title: Omnishambles: reactions to the second year of Coalition education policies
Author: COLIN RICHARDS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 3 Pages: 385-396
ABSTRACT The UK's Coalition Government completed its second year in office in May 2012. Many of its policies and pronouncements have been divisive and are contributing to the dismantling of the state education system as we have known it. Here, reflecting George Orwell's observation that 'Every joke against the established order is a tiny revolution', Colin Richards, a strong supporter of locally-maintained comprehensive education, subjects them to both criticism and ridicule through a self-edited selection of his published and unpublished letters to national newspapers - his third epistolary critique and one that covers the period May 2011 to April 2012.

Teachers' Professional Autonomy in England: are neo-liberal approaches incontestable?

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:15 GMT

Title: Teachers' Professional Autonomy in England: are neo-liberal approaches incontestable?
Author: JON BERRY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 3 Pages: 397-410
ABSTRACT This article is informed by a longitudinal research project undertaken with 22 teachers, four head teachers and two other related education professionals in England between May 2010 and April 2011. Drawing on 50 semi-structured interviews and some related email correspondence, the project investigates this cohort's view of teachers' professional autonomy. It takes as its starting point the hegemony of neo-liberal policy and the adoption and reinforcement of this by UK political parties of all persuasions. The outcomes of the project demonstrate that notwithstanding the thrust of such policy - manifested most obviously by the current conversion of increasing numbers of schools to semi-privatised academy status - teachers acknowledge, explicitly or otherwise, the prevalence of performativity and survivalism yet often retain loyalty to the concept of education as a liberal humanist project as opposed to that of a provider of human capital. In short, they manage to cling to a notion of teaching that transcends the demands of the pursuit of measurable standards. They also recognize the central paradox of the current policy ensemble embodied in the inconsistency of rhetoric from government about professional autonomy alongside strong central control and scrutiny. The article goes on to ask whether, given the expressed antipathy on the part of this government and its predecessors towards research informed policy in general, and to qualitative research in particular, it is possible that such voices will be heeded by power. There are clear implications here for teacher education at initial and post-qualification level.

Towards Whole System Improvement

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:15 GMT

Title: Towards Whole System Improvement
Author: RON GLATTER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 3 Pages: 411-416
ABSTRACT The relationship between academies, and school autonomy more generally, and the wider system is a crucial issue in the battle to improve school-level education. International experience indicates that emphasising choice and competition to drive improvement is not effective and that changing structures does not yield better results for students. A whole system approach is required based on a strong and democratic multi-level infrastructure of support and a common administrative and legal framework underpinned by the principles of public not contract law.

The Political Economies of Radical Education

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:15 GMT

Title: The Political Economies of Radical Education
Author: JOHN MORGAN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 3 Pages: 417-428
ABSTRACT The aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 has created space for discussion for alternative arrangements of economy and society. In education terms, there has been a flowering of texts which propose radical changes in educational systems. This article briefly discusses three examples (Fielding & Moss, Radical Education and the Common School; Facer, Learning Futures; and Woods, Transforming Education Policy). Based on a reading of Dale's (1979) discussion of how 1960s and 1970s 'progressive education' were limited by wider political economic structures, the article suggests that, at the present time, the 'new spirit of capitalism' allows for and even welcomes particular forms of progressive and even 'radical' change, based on ideas around participation, innovation, and flexibility. The article concludes with a set of questions to ask of schools which seek to engage in 'really radical practice'.

Grammar Schools: brief flowering of social mobility?

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:15 GMT

Title: Grammar Schools: brief flowering of social mobility?
Author: BERNARD BARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 3 Pages: 429-448
ABSTRACT Grammar schools are increasingly remembered, especially by right-wing ideologues, as the agents of a 'brief flowering' of post-war social mobility. This article presents statistical, documentary and interview evidence of secondary education in the eleven plus era, and finds nothing to justify the claim that selective schools produced a general improvement in educational opportunity or social mobility. Detailed life history interviews with Don (b. 1941, secondary modern, then secondary technical) and Margaret (b. 1951, grammar) recreate the almost forgotten 1950s world where opportunity was rationed and bright children were complacently failed. Access to post-16 and university education became widely available only when governments adopted a very much more generous funding regime, and comprehensive schools removed the complex barriers to success created by selection. Nostalgic accounts of grammar schools are a classic case of recovered false memory syndrome.

London's Jewish Communities and State Education

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:15 GMT

Title: London's Jewish Communities and State Education
Author: JANE MARTIN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 3 Pages: 449-464
ABSTRACT The Inner London education authority was a notable example of a radical and powerful local government body from which the fight for the comprehensive principle in English secondary education emerged. Building on previous work of women's contribution to state education in London, this articles focuses on Anglo-Jewish educator activists who helped shape the capital's response to the policy question of how to provide secondary education for all. The author's subjects are Henrietta (Nettie) Adler (1868-1950), siblings Helen Bentwich [née Franklin] (1892-1972) and Hugh Franklin (1889-1962) and Harold Rosen (1919-2008).

The Decorated School: past potency and present patronage

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:15 GMT

Title: The Decorated School: past potency and present patronage
Author: CATHERINE BURKE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 3 Pages: 465-471
ABSTRACT The Decorated School is an interdisciplinary research network funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The article situates current academic and wider community engagement concerning the purpose and significance of art as part of the school building and grounds in an historical context. It goes on to discuss emerging patterns of concealment and exposure of school murals in the past and their recovery in the present. Finally, it is suggested that contemporary interest and revaluing such art is welcome but that belief in the educational power of art as part of the built environment has nevertheless waned.

Creating Learning Without Limits (Mandy Swann, Alison Peacock, Susan Hart & Mary Jane Drummond)

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:15 GMT

Title: Creating Learning Without Limits (Mandy Swann, Alison Peacock, Susan Hart & Mary Jane Drummond)
Author: Clyde Chitty; Tony Booth; Colin Richards
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 3 Pages: 473-481
ABSTRACT Not available

BOOK REVIEWS

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:21:15 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEWS
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 3 Pages: 483-488
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Clyde Chitty; Colin Richards
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 179-183
ABSTRACT Not available

Governing Education: remaking the long revolution

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: Governing Education: remaking the long revolution
Author: STEWART RANSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 185-204
ABSTRACT Behind the thin veil of the Conservative regime's rationale of deficit reduction hides the final demolition of public comprehensive education and Raymond Williams's more expansive long revolution unfolding over a century of creating a democratic state that affords opportunity, voice and justice for all. Restoring the politics of a pre-war or Edwardian era, opportunity is now being rationed and education returned to its tradition of social selection and class subordination. Autocratic power is being constructed at the expense of 'inefficient' democratic spaces that voice appeal and deliberate policy in relation to need. Yet democracy is not the problem but the solution to the collective action dilemmas facing civil society. The potential of comprehensive learning communities to develop democratic collective agency is proposed.

Power, Democracy - and Democracy in Education

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: Power, Democracy - and Democracy in Education
Author: KEN JONES
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 205-214
ABSTRACT This article addresses questions of workplace democracy, particularly in relation to school education. Following Luciano Canfora in treating democracy as 'the rule of the many', it traces the post-1945 rise of workplace democracy, and its post-1979 decline. Analysing the constitution of contemporary schooling in England, the article concludes that it has been de-democratised. It suggests, however, that in the increasingly difficult situation in which the neo-liberal project of education finds itself, the efficacy and legitimacy of this system of governance will be increasingly questioned.

Half Way to Hell: what Gove is doing to England's schools

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: Half Way to Hell: what Gove is doing to England's schools
Author: DEREK GILLARD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 215-230
ABSTRACT In this article the author summarises the events of the past five months and assesses the damage being done by the Tory/LibDem coalition government to our schools, to the teachers who work in them, and to the education they provide.

The Myth of School Autonomy: centralisation as the determinant of English educational politics

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: The Myth of School Autonomy: centralisation as the determinant of English educational politics
Author: TREVOR FISHER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 231-246
ABSTRACT Following his previous article in this journal on the centralisation of power in English education post the 1988 Education Reform Act ('The Era of Centralisation', FORUM, 50[2], pp. 255-261), the author considers the apparent turn to school autonomy central to the Conservative Educational Revolution. He argues that the power shift to the centre is accelerated by the Revolution, which is destroying democratically elected local authority provision and enhancing the power of the Secretary of State to arbitrary levels. The rhetoric of the all powerful head teacher in control of the school is contradicted by centrally determined priorities, notably EBac, and the power of the media to represent the school to its community by performance tables. This continues the attempt to manipulate schools which New Labour attempted by its Diploma programme, but in the context of a narrow 1950s grammar school curriculum. The autonomy given to schools is essentially operational, notably over admissions and curriculum, but is constrained by league tables and government control of finance and service delivery contracts.

Ofsted Inspection Inspected: an examination of the 2012 framework for school inspection and its accompanying evaluation schedule

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: Ofsted Inspection Inspected: an examination of the 2012 framework for school inspection and its accompanying evaluation schedule
Author: COLIN RICHARDS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 247-272
ABSTRACT Ofsted has always courted controversy. With the appointment of a strident new chief inspector its operations are likely to remain, or become increasingly, controversial. This article provides a detailed critique of key documents which describe the new inspection regime that for good or ill will have major consequences in schools. Although in certain limited aspects they represent an improvement on the previous inspection regime, the new requirements have many highly problematic elements which undermine the integrity and validity of inspection judgements. The article argues that schools in disadvantaged areas are likely to suffer most from some of the deficiencies highlighted.

Does Gove Really Want to Set Us Free?

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: Does Gove Really Want to Set Us Free?
Author: JON BERRY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 273-284
ABSTRACT This article argues that one of the central paradoxes of neo-liberalism is currently being played out in the UK Coalition Government's education policy. Rhetoric that talks of freedoms to be enjoyed by schools and teachers is at variance with a centrally imposed, reductive view of the curriculum, continuing high-stakes scrutiny and the forcing of schools towards academy status. The coalition's hastily constructed legislation reveals a view of education that bears the hallmark of pragmatic marketisation with such limited freedoms as may be enjoyed existing in the context of reward for the compliant and acquiescent. The article concludes with a brief - and necessary - consideration of possibilities for resistance.

The Stone Age Didn't End Because They Ran out of Stone: why our children can't wait much longer for a functional school system

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: The Stone Age Didn't End Because They Ran out of Stone: why our children can't wait much longer for a functional school system
Author: GERALDINE NORMAN; MARK MOORHOUSE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 285-298
ABSTRACT This article explores the reasons why transformation of the school system is urgently needed. It is suggested that the system will implode as a result of a growing dislocation between what schools need to achieve and the inadequate, if not damaging, practices forcefully promoted by increasing numbers of school leaders and politicians. Alternatively, a culture of schooling in which there is much less directed management of students' learning behaviours and far more challenge, and therefore growth, is advocated. Let us start with the child, not with the school.

Re-energising Subject Knowledge

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: Re-energising Subject Knowledge
Author: JOHN HOPKIN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 299-304
ABSTRACT The value of knowledge and the role of subjects in the school curriculum have been widely questioned in recent years, often portrayed as old-fashioned and irrelevant, especially in the face of a fast-changing global economy. This article argues that this is both limited in its view of the potential of knowledge and subjects, and limiting for those pupils denied access to disciplined knowledge, especially in particular schools and subjects. It proposes that the acquisition of knowledge through subjects remains central to pupils' entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum, and to their ability to participate actively in our society, economy and democracy. It suggests the need for a more informed (and disciplined) policy debate founded in a balanced view of the purposes of education.

Towards a New ABC of Curriculum-making: a reply to John Hopkin

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: Towards a New ABC of Curriculum-making: a reply to John Hopkin
Author: JOHN WHITE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 305-312
ABSTRACT This is a reply to John Hopkin's article in this number of FORUM on 'Re-energising subject knowledge' (Volume 54, Number 2, 2012). It argues that Hopkin does not provide sufficiently cogent reasons for continuing the tradition of a subject-based curriculum. It favours starting from defensible general aims of school education and seeing what these require in the shape of more specific aims. How far the result coincides with or diverges from a subject-based curriculum cannot be prejudged. This article also questions Hopkin's almost exclusive emphasis on knowledge aims and provides a historical perspective on this way of thinking about education and on its shortfalls.

The Birth of New Labour and the Death of Comprehensive Education

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: The Birth of New Labour and the Death of Comprehensive Education
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 313-318
ABSTRACT It is argued that the creation of something called 'New Labour' in the mid-1990s marked the death of the comprehensive school in England - or, rather, the end of any attempt to create a nationwide system of comprehensive schools. The election of Tony Blair as Labour Party Leader in July 1994 can be viewed as THE defining year in post-war Labour history, in that it marked the point when Labour effectively turned its back on its social democratic agenda, which had included a commitment to the comprehensive reform. It can be argued that there had been a good deal of confusion throughout the twentieth century as to the exact meaning of the concept of 'secondary education for all' and that the Labour Party Establishment had never been unanimous in its endorsement of comprehensive education - so that, in repudiating the comprehensive ideal, Tony Blair was actually pushing at an open door. Nevertheless, when criticising the Coalition Government for its reactionary education policies, we must always remember that the Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were involved in the creation of a bewildering array of new types of secondary school, which left the system more divided and fragmented than it had ever been.

Mr Gove's Road to Privatisation: forcing primary schools to become Academies

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: Mr Gove's Road to Privatisation: forcing primary schools to become Academies
Author: MELIAN MANSFIELD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 319-322
ABSTRACT Not content with the response to his offer to outstanding schools to become academies, Michael Gove's next move has been to force schools to become academies. Resistance from parents and the local community has made no difference. This article explains what happened in Haringey and how undemocratic the whole process has been.

Co-operative Schools: a democratic alternative

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: Co-operative Schools: a democratic alternative
Author: JAMIE AUDSLEY; PHILIP COOK
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 323-326
ABSTRACT Many fear that the pressures of running an Academy will be too great for individual schools, and that they will be forced to join chains run by private companies. These may offer hard-pressed school administrators valuable management expertise and back-office support, but seem to offer wider society little accountability and transparency. Are private Academy chains the best option, where Academy schools have been cut adrift from the support and democratic legitimacy of local authority governance? The authors argue that a democratic alternative must be found.

Co-operative Schools: building communities in the 21st century

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: Co-operative Schools: building communities in the 21st century
Author: TOM WOODIN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 327-340
ABSTRACT The recent progress of 'co-operative schools' both confirms and disrupts many assumptions surrounding contemporary compulsory schooling. The term itself refers to an eclectic array of schools, both primary and secondary, of which there were, by June 2012, almost 300 in England that have adopted co-operative values, in terms of governance, pedagogy and curriculum, and come together as a movement. They have emerged from within a fissiparous ecology of education which has given rise to new schools and networks, including academy schools, converter academies, free schools, trust schools and specialised schools. In this article the author argues that these changes have all offered opportunities for co-operative alternatives to be established.

Can We Believe the International League Tables?

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:36:20 GMT

Title: Can We Believe the International League Tables?
Author: PETER WILBY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 2 Pages: 341-344
ABSTRACT This article, updated and expanded from one written for The Times Educational Supplement, 10 December 2010, asks whether politicians are right to quote the country's performance in international tests in support of such policies as re-introducing O levels. It finds reasons to doubt that the tests give an adequate picture of children's learning, in comparison with either older cohorts or overseas peers. Nor do they provide a fair measure of schools' success or the validity of examination qualifications.

Editorial. What is the Way Forward?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: Editorial. What is the Way Forward?
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 3-4
ABSTRACT Not available

Caught in the (Education) Act: tackling Michael Gove's education revolution. Report on 19th November 2011 Conference

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: Caught in the (Education) Act: tackling Michael Gove's education revolution. Report on 19th November 2011 Conference
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 5-12
ABSTRACT A number of significant campaigning organisations and education trades unions - the Anti-Academies Alliance, CASE, Comprehensive Future, Forum, ISCG and the Socialist Educational Association, along with ASCL, ATL, NASUWT and NUT - staged a conference in London on 19 November 2011, with the title 'Caught in the (Education) Act: tackling Michael Gove's education revolution'. This is an edited version of the Report of that conference.

A Divided Education System

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: A Divided Education System
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 13-16
ABSTRACT This is a slightly amended version of the talk with which Clyde Chitty opened the 'Caught in the Act' Conference on 19 November 2011.

Putting the Alternative Case: a twenty-first-century vision for England's schools

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: Putting the Alternative Case: a twenty-first-century vision for England's schools
Author: MELISSA BENN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 17-22
ABSTRACT This is an amended version of a talk given by Melissa Benn to the 'Caught in the Act' Conference on 19 November 2011.

Show Me the Money! Neoliberalism at Work in Education

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: Show Me the Money! Neoliberalism at Work in Education
Author: STEPHEN J. BALL
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 23-28
ABSTRACT Neoliberalism is often addressed by commentators and critics as a set of ideas or a doctrine. This article considers neoliberalism as a set of financial practices and exchanges - as about money and profit - and goes on to suggest that as practitioners, researchers, activists we need to understand and engage with that logic and its mechanisms. Examples are given of the role of money in all aspects of education policy and education reform.

Gove's Offensive and the Failure of Labour's Response

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: Gove's Offensive and the Failure of Labour's Response
Author: RICHARD HATCHER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 29-36
ABSTRACT In this article the author examines the response of the Labour leadership to the Conservative-led Government's policies for restructuring and re-agenting the school system. His focus is on the role of local authorities and local democracy. He identifies two contradictory dynamics in Labour's current thinking. One promises to enhance local democracy and community empowerment. The other, dominant, accepts the new landscape of academies and free schools and advocates new powers for local school commissioners and elected mayors in the school system. Neither, however, offer a vision of enhanced local democratic accountability through the reinvigoration of local authorities.

Do We Need a Middle Tier in Education?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: Do We Need a Middle Tier in Education?
Author: TERRY PARKIN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 37-40
ABSTRACT The direction of the UK Government's policy is to remove schools from local authority control, and replace that relationship with private sponsors, undermining their ability, or indeed inclination, to deliver on the 'Every Child Matters' agenda, among many others. The author argues that local authorities have much to give and where they have focused on building effective partnerships, communities of schools can be effective in accepting a much wider range of local responsibilities, from standards to special educational needs. This could be achieved through an enhanced duty to cooperate placed on schools by central government and this should form the basis of any future reform to ensure local schools are once again placed under the control of the communities they serve.

Comprehensive Schools and the Future

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: Comprehensive Schools and the Future
Author: BERNARD BARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 41-54
ABSTRACT This article argues that comprehensive reorganisation was not a one-off policy reform but a complex, bottom-up campaign for equity and fairness in education, with varied consequences and outcomes. Recent battles over student fees, free schools and academies show that the quest for democratic education does not lead to a permanent achievement but to perpetual struggle with privileged groups who feel themselves threatened by social justice.

Decline and Fall: are state schools and universities on the point of collapse?

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: Decline and Fall: are state schools and universities on the point of collapse?
Author: TIM BRIGHOUSE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 55-56
ABSTRACT This contribution is an edited version of the 'Alumni Lecture' organised by the Department of Education of the University of Oxford at Lady Margaret Hall on 15th September 2011. The article reviews the drift towards the centralisation of power in the way the schooling system is run, the conflict between a desire for equity in education and the promotion of the influence of market forces. It reviews standards of outcome in schools over time with a brief look at similar tensions in the influences on universities and ends with a call for a review of the distribution of powers among central government, local government and the schools.

Streaming and Setting in UK Primary Schools: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: Streaming and Setting in UK Primary Schools: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study
Author: SUSAN HALLAM
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 57-64
ABSTRACT This article provides a brief historical perspective on structured ability grouping, a summary of recent research on streaming and setting amongst seven-year-olds from the Millennium Cohort Study, and considers some of the implications of what appears to be an increase in structured ability grouping in the primary school.

The Labour Party and the Need for Change: values, education and emotional literacy/intelligence

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: The Labour Party and the Need for Change: values, education and emotional literacy/intelligence
Author: BRIAN MATTHEWS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 65-72
ABSTRACT The author argues that when the Labour Party has analysed its values emotional development has been neglected. He shows the importance of emotional literacy and uses education as a vehicle to show how Labour when in power reinforced right-wing ideology. Ways of changing education policy are indicated. It is hoped that this article will promote a lively discussion.

Privatisation in Education: further reflections

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: Privatisation in Education: further reflections
Author: Clive Griggs
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 73-90
ABSTRACT Not available

Margaret Miles: the educational journey of a comprehensive school campaigner

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: Margaret Miles: the educational journey of a comprehensive school campaigner
Author: LOTTIE HOARE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 91-102
ABSTRACT As a former comprehensive school pupil herself, the author wanted to know more about the women who had pioneered comprehensive schools in England. Therefore, she chose the headmistress and comprehensive school campaigner Dame Margaret Miles (1911-1994) as the subject of a dissertation for her History of Education MA at the Institute of Education, University of London. This article attempts to rebuild the story of Margaret Miles' networks of influence from 1911-1955 and explains how she gathered ideas that she hoped to transplant into the comprehensive school system after 1955. The author then move on to examine how seeds of doubt about Miles' particular vision and comprehensive education in general were introduced to a nervous public in documentary film between 1955 and 1963.

Secondary Modern School Education: an essay in subjugation and repression

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: Secondary Modern School Education: an essay in subjugation and repression
Author: PAUL DASH
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 103-112
ABSTRACT This article reflects on the inequity of secondary modern school education. In doing so it draws heavily on the experience of the author while highlighting inputs from others who failed the 11+ examination and were banished to such schools. The article argues that selection undermines the self-esteem of secondary modern school pupils and places them at a life-long disadvantage relative to successful candidates of selection. He discusses some of his experiences in greater detail in his 2002 autobiography Foreday Morning.

The Evidence Base on the Effects of Policy and Practice in Faith Schools

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: The Evidence Base on the Effects of Policy and Practice in Faith Schools
Author: PAUL PETTINGER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 113-120
ABSTRACT This article analyses some of the common assertions made in the public debate about the merits and disadvantages of faith schools and tests them against actual research findings. It argues that there is a growing body of evidence showing that current policy and practice in faith schools creates social division and that faith schools need to do more to respect the rights and beliefs of staff, pupils and their families.

The Intersection of Community, Culture and Learning Processes within the Setting of a Chinese Complementary School

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: The Intersection of Community, Culture and Learning Processes within the Setting of a Chinese Complementary School
Author: THEO CREBER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 121-134
ABSTRACT This article is based on a research assignment submitted for the PGCE Course at Goldsmiths College, University of London. It looks at a Chinese community school and considers the experiences of participating families and explores how the ethos and purpose of the school relate to the practices, activities and representations that occur within its communal space. Since writing this article the school has successfully relocated to new premises at another East London secondary school.

BOOK REVIEWS

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:36:40 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEWS
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2012 Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Pages: 135-176
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial The Death of Local Democracy?

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: Editorial The Death of Local Democracy?
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 335-337
ABSTRACT The system of policy making that was established as an integral part of the 1945 post-war educational settlement has often been described as 'a national system, locally administered'. Being a source of much pride at the time, it involved the continuing operation of a benign partnership between central government, local government and individual schools and colleges.

Markets are for Commodities, Not Children

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: Markets are for Commodities, Not Children
Author: PETER MORTIMORE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 339-348
ABSTRACT Recent governments have transformed the English education system from an arrangement of local, democratically managed, groups of schools into a market free-for-all in which individual schools compete for pupils, status and resources. Elements of a market exist in the relationship between parents and private schools but much market behaviour is inimical to a fair education system. Successive governments' clumsy attempts 'to fix the market' in favour of the schools they have created has led to stressed parents, over-tested pupils and a deeply fractured system. Two simple changes could improve the system: ensuring schools receive balanced intakes of pupils (with all receiving fair shares of those who find learning easy and difficult); and spreading high quality teachers between schools. Ways to achieve these changes are proposed.

Europe: education remade

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: Europe: education remade
Author: KEN JONES
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 349-356
ABSTRACT Educational reform in Western Europe continues to be accompanied by high levels of contestation and conflict. The article discusses the terms of current conflicts in France and Italy, exploring the main lines of government programmes, and also the kinds of opposition they have encountered.

I Can't Believe What is Happening to the English Education System

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: I Can't Believe What is Happening to the English Education System
Author: PETER DOWNES
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 357-366
ABSTRACT The author, a former headteacher and now a county councillor, argues that the structural changes to the education system put in place in the first weeks of the new government in the summer of 2010 will exacerbate the gap between the highest and lowest achieving schools, will destabilise the state-funded education system, will expose it to marketisation and partial privatisation and will diminish local democratic accountability. It is a policy which is divisive, unfair and costly, driven by a narrow-minded ideology which pays little attention to evidence and professional experience.

Our Schools are Being Privatised

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: Our Schools are Being Privatised
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 367-368
ABSTRACT The threat of the National Health Service being privatised has led to such strong opposition that the Government has been forced to backtrack; and yet, through the development of 'Academies' and 'Free Schools', our education system is being stealthily privatised, right under our noses, without so much as a word from politicians or journalists who claim to believe in social democracy. Why is this?

A New Direction for Schools and Labour

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: A New Direction for Schools and Labour
Author: JAMIE AUDSLEY; JIM O'CONNELL
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 369-378
ABSTRACT The authors argue that it is time to get radical about the Left's vision for education and develop a direction that communities can really own. The Labour Party being out of government for the first time in 13 years gives us a chance to consider what education means to the Left, and allows us to be innovative in how the Party can approach education both now and in anticipation of an eventual return to government. The authors consider the interaction between policy and citizen action in education, highlighting the importance of both and their complementary nature. It is argued, following some of the values and reasoning of the 'Blue Labour' dialogue, that for schools to be both truly free and effective they need to be governed by alliances of parents and teachers and not by the state or the market. This requires a shift of trust on the part of the Left, and in particular a willingness to accept pluralism and diversity in education contra both the centralised prescriptions and target setting of the New Labour Government and its moves towards marketisation with the 'choice' agenda. In particular, against the consumerist approach to education, they envisage an onus on parental agency beyond selecting the school - on being trusted to work continuously in collaboration with other school stakeholders and inculcating a sense of citizenship in children in order that they should do the same.

Academy Conversion: a view from the governing body

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: Academy Conversion: a view from the governing body
Author: NIGEL GANN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 379-390
ABSTRACT The case for conversion to academy status is being made in a number of arenas, not least on the Department for Education website. As a matter of balance, school governors considering conversion need to take into account a range of factors. How does this fundamental shift in the ownership of schools fit into a discernible historical pattern?

From Hollowed-Out Council to Educative Commune: imagining local authorities in a democratic public education

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: From Hollowed-Out Council to Educative Commune: imagining local authorities in a democratic public education
Author: PETER MOSS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 391-402
ABSTRACT This article argues the case for local authorities having an important role in a renewed democratic public education, adopting the term 'educative commune' to express an image of the local authority as a protagonist working with others to build a local educational project. It concludes by considering what conditions may benefit this development.

Rights-Based Education: towards a local democratic project

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: Rights-Based Education: towards a local democratic project
Author: LEORA CRUDDAS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 403-406
ABSTRACT This article offers a dialogic engagement with Fielding & Moss's Radical Education and the Common School (2011). First, the author puts forward a critical and reflective narrative on the process in the London Borough of Waltham Forest to create a strategic children and young people plan, which she cautiously proposes is an attempt to define a local democratic project - rights-based education. She then goes on to explore whether a local authority and a community or 'commonwealth' of schools can act together - possibly in radical collegiality - to further democratic education locally.

Rejuvenating Democracy: lessons from a communitarian experiment

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: Rejuvenating Democracy: lessons from a communitarian experiment
Author: HENRY BENEDICT TAM
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 407-420
ABSTRACT Democracy has been weakened in the United Kingdom with citizens increasingly frustrated at not being able to shape government decisions in any meaningful way. State actions at the local and national level are at risk of becoming even more influenced by vested private interests. This poses a major challenge to the democratic health of the country. However, something can be done to strengthen collaboration between state and citizens. This article recounts a large scale communitarian experiment conducted by the author as a senior public official in local and central government between 1995 and 2010, with the aim of empowering communities to become real partners in public policy making. It draws out five key lessons to be learnt from the experiment for anyone concerned with rejuvenating democracy in the UK.

Moving in Darkness: back to the future at Crown Woods College

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: Moving in Darkness: back to the future at Crown Woods College
Author: PATRICK YARKER; MELISSA BENN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 421-428
ABSTRACT At the end of July 2011 The Guardian reported on the recently opened Crown Woods College in Eltham, South-East London. The College had been rebuilt on the site of the previous Crown Woods School with £50 million of funding via the Building Schools for the Future project. Its nine buildings include four 'mini-schools', one of which is a sixth form, alongside a state-of-the-art gym, a building for children with moderate learning difficulties, special educational needs (SEN) or visual impairment, and a technology and design centre. Media interest was aroused by the way the College had extended its previous policy of streaming students by 'ability'. Each mini-school (leaving aside the sixth form) operates separately from the others and is populated by students deemed to be only of a particular 'ability'. Since each mini-school has its own uniform, Crown Woods College students are effectively identified in public by 'ability', with mini-school populations prevented from mixing. The Guardian's headline was: 'School Colour-Codes Pupils by Ability'. The Guardian's report, which generated some 250 comments, was picked up by other newspapers. Elements of the original were reproduced on blog sites and Internet-discussion forums. In an article also published by The Guardian, FORUM board member Melissa Benn took up some of the issues raised by the public funding of a segregated state school. We reproduce that article, along with a piece by fellow board member Patrick Yarker, who taught English at Crown Woods school.

A Case Study in School Improvement

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: A Case Study in School Improvement
Author: ROGER TITCOMBE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 429-450
ABSTRACT In October 2010 Perry Beeches school, an 11-16 Local Authority controlled community comprehensive in Birmingham, was widely featured in the national media as the 'most improved school in the UK' - Ever. Some of the ways in which this was achieved are explored. Whether the changes undergone by this school reflect a pattern that has become more deeply rooted in the English education system is investigated. The research is based on data sets relating to Perry Beeches school obtained by means of the Freedom of Information Act and also on 2010 national school improvement data and the subject-by-subject results of improved schools released by the Department for Education. The 2010 examination results are analysed in detail and patterns are revealed that appear to be linked to league table driven factors. The grade distribution in GCSE maths is given special consideration, together with the role and quality of pre-16 vocational courses. The consequences of the special status of the C grade at GCSE are discussed. The recruitment of the 2010 ex-Perry Beeches pupils onto AS/A level courses was obtained and is considered in terms of enabling progression to higher education. The Perry Beeches curriculum and examination results are placed into the national context by cross referencing the DfE's 'most improved' schools data with school performance in the English Baccalaureate, leading to the conclusion that the most improved schools in league table terms appear to be providing the most limited curriculum judged from a number of educational viewpoints including that of facilitating progression to top universities.

What Could Be - for contemporary policy and practice: challenges posed by the work of Edmond Holmes

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: What Could Be - for contemporary policy and practice: challenges posed by the work of Edmond Holmes
Author: COLIN RICHARDS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 451-462
ABSTRACT In a previous issue of FORUM (Volume 52[3], 2010) Colin Richards attempted to apply Edmond Holmes's critique of 1911 to contemporary policy and practice. In this article he discusses the many positive challenges Holmes's work offers a hundred years on.

The Special Educational Needs Green Paper: a lost opportunity?

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: The Special Educational Needs Green Paper: a lost opportunity?
Author: Paul Martin
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 463-468
ABSTRACT Not available

Students' Views on the Riots

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: Students' Views on the Riots
Author: TOM YOUNG; KATE STEVENSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 469-474
ABSTRACT Reflecting two students views on this summers riots, Tom Young locates the riots as a symptom of 20th century consumerism. Tracing the historical development of public relations and advertising with the rise of one of the 20th century's least known and most influential figures 'Eddy Bernays', he asks the question - who's really to blame for the riots? Following this, Kate Stevenson puts herself at the heart of the debate and looks at how we locate ourselves within the traditional perspectives of political Left and Right.

BOOK REVIEWS

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:23:44 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEWS
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 3 Pages: 475-484
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial. Campaigning for State Education

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Editorial. Campaigning for State Education
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 175-178
ABSTRACT Not available

Coalition Education Policy: Thatcherism's long shadow

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Coalition Education Policy: Thatcherism's long shadow
Author: HOWARD STEVENSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 179-194
ABSTRACT Coalition education policy threatens to transform the school system in England. A combination of public spending cuts, and the drive to making all schools Academies, represents a key moment in the restructuring of the education service along neo-liberal lines. This article argues that there is nothing distinctively 'new' about Coalition schools policy, but rather it represents a realisation of the '1988 project' to break up and privatise state education in England. What took a major step forward in the form of the 1988 Education Reform Act is now reaching its logical conclusion in Coalition policy. This article identifies how such policy threatens to finally secure the dismantling of a democratic system by replacing it with a state-subsidised free market. The article also sets out the possibilities for a 'coalition of resistance' to emerge, capable of interrupting this latest and decisive stage in neo-liberal reform.

Education for the Good Society

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Education for the Good Society
Author: NEAL LAWSON; KEN SPOURS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 195-206
ABSTRACT The Left is facing a crisis of its approach to education highlighted by the 'education revolution' of the Coalition Government. The authors argue that it is important to step back and present a positive vision of education based on the key pillars of the Good Society - fairness, democracy, sustainability and well-being. This values-led agenda, whilst offering an opportunity to take the moral and philosophical high ground, will also present a number of difficult strategic questions.

The Role of Parents and Governors

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: The Role of Parents and Governors
Author: MELIAN MANSFIELD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 207-212
ABSTRACT Not available

The Struggle for Democracy in the Local School System

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: The Struggle for Democracy in the Local School System
Author: RICHARD HATCHER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 213-224
ABSTRACT The Coalition Government, building on the foundations laid by its Labour predecessor, aims to dismantle the local authority system and with it what remains of the accountability of schools to local elected government. In this article, a response to Stewart Ranson's in a recent issue of FORUM, the author examines his claims for the emergence of new forms of participative governance and suggests an alternative approach to taking forward the democratisation of governance in local school systems at neighbourhood and local authority levels in the context of conflicting class interests.

Knowing Your Mind: teachers, students and the language of ability

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Knowing Your Mind: teachers, students and the language of ability
Author: PATRICK YARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 225-234
ABSTRACT This article considers how pervasive remains the idea of fixed innate ability in relation to state education, and criticises on ethical and other grounds the language of ability as currently heard.

Differing Views of Human Intelligence

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Differing Views of Human Intelligence
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 235-246
ABSTRACT This article is based on a talk that was given by the author at the Institute of Historical Research on 3 February 2011, on the Victorian polymath Francis Galton and the malign legacy of his eugenic theories. It pays tribute to the pioneering work of the late Brian Simon in challenging the whole idea of 'fixed innate intelligence' and in furthermore insisting that a belief in 'human educability' should be at the heart of the campaign for comprehensive education.

Incompetence or Deliberate Manipulation?

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Incompetence or Deliberate Manipulation?
Author: RICHARD HARRIS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 247-252
ABSTRACT The author gives a personal account of campaigning on fair admissions and the importance of Admission Forums and some of the responses it has generated along with the ConDem Coalition response - or lack of it.

Social and Political Education in British Schools: 50 years of curriculum development

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Social and Political Education in British Schools: 50 years of curriculum development
Author: BARRY DUFOUR
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 253-260
ABSTRACT The main developments in this broad curriculum area are traced decade by decade with key signpost successes highlighted, along with examples of retrenchment and opposition to the march of progress. The drivers for change and regression were often central government initiatives but, all along, the activity of progressive educationists/academics and teachers in comprehensive schools and their lobbying through professional subject organisations occupied a key role. The possible turning back of the clock under the Coalition's Review of the National Curriculum signals yet another downturn in the fortunes of social and political education.

Enquiring Minds: a radical curriculum project?

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Enquiring Minds: a radical curriculum project?
Author: JOHN MORGAN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 261-272
ABSTRACT This article focuses on Enquiring Minds, a three-year curriculum development project funded by Microsoft as part of its Partners in Learning programme and run by Futurelab. The article suggests that the project is best understood as an example of a new type of 'curriculum entrepreneurialism' that is impatient with the traditional structures of curriculum and pedagogy and which seeks to pave the way for 'radical' transformation of education systems. The article locates this curriculum innovation in three broad contexts of educational cultures in Britain. These concern the question of the relationship between formal and informal cultures of learning, the relationship between knowledge, social class and curriculum, and the emergence of ideas about the economic value of schooling and the role of technology in young people's lives. These 'cultures of schooling' invariably affect any attempt to introduce radical change. Finally, the article poses the question of what is 'radical' about projects such as Enquiring Minds, and suggests that they might best be interpreted as moves to realign the practices of schooling with the requirements of a mobile and global capitalism.

Learning Futures: rebuilding curriculum and pedagogy around student engagement

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Learning Futures: rebuilding curriculum and pedagogy around student engagement
Author: DAVID PRICE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 273-284
ABSTRACT The author discusses the Learning Futures programme, a partnership set up between the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Innovation Unit. The two organisations had previously worked together on the Musical Futures project that had involved radical new approaches to teaching and learning in secondary school music.

RSA Opening Minds: a curriculum for the 21st century

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: RSA Opening Minds: a curriculum for the 21st century
Author: SARA CANDY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 285-292
ABSTRACT This article discusses the RSA Opening Minds competence framework, an innovative curriculum to meet the needs of young people as future employees, lifelong learners and as citizens of the twenty-first century.

Decentralisation for Schools, but Not for Knowledge: the RSA Area Based Curriculum and the limits of localism in Coalition education policy

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Decentralisation for Schools, but Not for Knowledge: the RSA Area Based Curriculum and the limits of localism in Coalition education policy
Author: LOUISE THOMAS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 293-304
ABSTRACT Use of local environments and stakeholders to illuminate the school curriculum, and increase ownership of it, has been demonstrated by international research as an effective means by which to make the curriculum more relevant and engaging to students. Localism is a key tenet of the Government's policy platform, and in education policy the extension of structural freedoms for schools has been a key priority. However, a parallel process of democratisation of knowledge is unlikely to follow. The inadequacy of government thinking about the nature of knowledge, and weaknesses in the system that will not be addressed by current policy, mean that schools are unlikely to be in a position to take full advantage of their new freedoms with regard to curriculum. The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce's (RSA's) Area Based Curriculum is contributing to the debate and practice about how localism might apply to knowledge. The author argues that in a world where local, national and global knowledges are increasingly in conflict, localism must extend to knowledge as well as to the structures of schooling. Curriculum developed in partnership between students, local communities and teachers would better equip students to navigate ideas of what is important and what it is important to know.

Music Education under Threat

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Music Education under Threat
Author: KATE STEVENSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 305-310
ABSTRACT Leicester-Shire Arts in Education has long had both a national and international reputation for providing high-quality music education to young people. Last year, its future seemed in jeopardy as a result of County Council spending cuts. This article provides a historical background to the service, and describes how a campaign developed to defend the provision. The campaign has achieved some success, but the service has been reduced and its longer term future remains uncertain. Continued public spending cuts, and a perception that arts education is a luxury, not a necessity, do not bode well for the future.

Year 7 Accelerated Learning Curriculum 2006-2010: from a concept to an outstanding curriculum

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Year 7 Accelerated Learning Curriculum 2006-2010: from a concept to an outstanding curriculum
Author: IAN CRESWELL
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 311-316
ABSTRACT The author, Head of Year 7 at Cantell Maths and Computing College in Southampton, describes the development of an innovative approach to Year 7, which is based on the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency programme 'Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills'. He shows how the new approach evolved and continues to develop including the impact it has had on improvements across both Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4.

Death of Meritocracy Reconsidered

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: Death of Meritocracy Reconsidered
Author: TREVOR FISHER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 317-322
ABSTRACT Poor social mobility has become controversial, with the stranglehold of the independent schools over elite universities intensifying during the New Labour period. The author identifies the failure of New Labour's Mark 2 A level reforms to deal with the situation, particularly the introduction of the A star at A level, which has given the independent schools a massive and apparently objective superiority over all other schools, including grammar schools, in the university entrance race. Together with increased tuition fees and the prospect of above quota admissions for rich students with high grades, elite universities are in danger of becoming finishing schools for the rich. The author proposes reintroducing the Advanced Extension Award, also known as the Special Paper, as an immediate means of addressing inequality in the 18 plus exam system and university entrance as a step towards a more fundamental meritocratic reform of the exam and university entrance system.

'Gove Moves in Mysterious Ways His Blunders to Perform': an epistolary critique (with apologies to William Cowper)

Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:16:15 GMT

Title: 'Gove Moves in Mysterious Ways His Blunders to Perform': an epistolary critique (with apologies to William Cowper)
Author: COLIN RICHARDS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Pages: 323-332
ABSTRACT The Coalition Government's education policies are ripe for criticism and equally ripe for controlled but principled derision. In the letters pages of the Times Educational Supplement and, to a lesser extent, Education Guardian, Colin Richards has subjected them to a barrage of criticism, some couched as sardonic humour. Here are reproduced a self-edited selection of his published and unpublished letters.

EDITORIAL A Comprehensive Curriculum: reaffirmation and renewal

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: EDITORIAL A Comprehensive Curriculum: reaffirmation and renewal
Author: MICHAEL FIELDING
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 3-9
ABSTRACT This Special Issue on Curriculum is prefaced by two important interventions in the current debate. The first is Clyde Chitty's wonderfully clear and trenchant critique of the aptly renamed 'Demolition' government's opening months in office. His A Massive Power Grab from Local Communities: the real significance of the 2010 White Paper and the 2011 Education Bill provides a concise and compelling expose of proposals that are about to blight 'future generations of our children - and, in particular, those whose parents lack the social standing and financial clout needed to negotiate your way around our increasingly iniquitous state system.'

A Massive Power Grab from Local Communities: the real significance of the 2010 White Paper and the 2011 Education Bill

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: A Massive Power Grab from Local Communities: the real significance of the 2010 White Paper and the 2011 Education Bill
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 11-14
ABSTRACT This article looks at the Coalition Government's recent White Paper and Education Bill whose chief effect will be to further destabilise the schools system in the United Kingdom.

The Seesaw Curriculum: it's time that educational policy matured

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: The Seesaw Curriculum: it's time that educational policy matured
Author: JOHN ELLIOTT
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 15-30
ABSTRACT The author claims that the UK coalition government's White Paper, entitled the Importance of Teaching, continues to polarise curriculum and pedagogical thinking in England into subject-centred versus child-centred camps and in doing so takes sides with the former. He argues that government reports - such as Hadow, Spens and Norwood - have been concerned with the role and status of the traditional subject-based curriculum of the elite grammar schools in a mass educational system. In this policy context cycles of curriculum development and reform have tended to seesaw from the subject-centred to the child-centred curriculum poles and back again. Attempts to reconcile these conflicting perspectives by locating the subject-centred curriculum in the realm of educational ends and the child-centred perspective, as exemplified by the thought of John Dewey, in the realm of educational methods. In this way the child-centred approach is used to improve and broaden access to the traditional subject-based curriculum, while being rendered subservient to it. The author goes on to examine Dewey's own integrated conception of the relationship between subjects and the child-centred perspective and its implications for curriculum and pedagogy. These are compared with the views on curriculum design and teacher training expressed in the White Paper. The author concludes that there is a growing gap, between the partial models of mind and its development that inform government policy in the field of education and advances towards a broader and more integrated model. From the latter standpoint educational policy-making in England will look increasingly disordered.

Curricula for the Common School: what shall we tell our children?

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: Curricula for the Common School: what shall we tell our children?
Author: TONY BOOTH
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 31-48
ABSTRACT This article gives an account of the way an opportunity has been taken to draw together ideas for a curriculum for the common school and beyond, during the writing of a new edition of the Index for Inclusion; developing learning and participation in schools (Booth & Ainscow, 2011). I discuss the way thinking about the curriculum for the common school was curtailed in the mid 1980s and has re-emerged for me following further elaboration of a values framework and a consideration of its implications for educational action. It has been prompted too by facing up to imperatives ignored in the past and clamouring for attention in the present. I consider the nature of a curriculum that builds from experience, is values and rights-based, is local and global, engages with sustainability and roots us in the past, present and future. This involves a radical re-structuring for adults and children of the knowledge and skills which frame learning activities inside and outside classrooms. I give a brief indication of how I have fleshed out curriculum areas, and how I hope for these efforts to be refined in negotiations with others. I briefly compare my own suggestions with proposals from two reviews of primary education (Alexander, 2010; DCSF 2009) and the critique of education of Nel Noddings (Noddings 2005, 2006). I acknowledge the resistance to challenge to a traditional school curriculum, and the particular pressures towards a narrowing of the secondary curriculum from the Coalition Government in the United Kingdom. I stress that, in keeping with my values, I remain optimistic that we, adults and children, working together, as we hurtle through the 21st Century, can construct curricula that are right for our time; that connect together the small and big things that really matter.

Curriculum Lost: a festival of errors

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: Curriculum Lost: a festival of errors
Author: MIKE DAVIES
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 49-66
ABSTRACT This article traces the career of one teacher through his involvement in a number of school based curriculum design innovations. The idea of 'depth' or distance is used to discuss a number of dimensions against which it is possible to judge the worth of a curriculum from a range of perspectives, most especially that of the student. The discussion also regrets the lack of a robust contemporary debate around the nature of curriculum and illuminates a lack of coherence and understanding of criteria for selecting curriculum content in our schools today.

Introduction to Robin Alexander

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: Introduction to Robin Alexander
Author: MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 67-70
ABSTRACT Introductory remarks to the Third Brian Simon Memorial Lecture by Robin Alexander: Legacies, Policies and Prospects: one year on from the Cambridge Primary Review

Legacies, Policies and Prospects: one year on from the Cambridge Primary Review

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: Legacies, Policies and Prospects: one year on from the Cambridge Primary Review
Author: ROBIN ALEXANDER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 71-92
ABSTRACT The 2010 Brian Simon Memorial Lecture, Saturday 6 November 2010, Institute of Education, University of London

Curriculum Autonomy through Curriculum Expertise

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: Curriculum Autonomy through Curriculum Expertise
Author: GARETH PIMLEY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 93-100
ABSTRACT The author argues that the decisions primary teachers make about the curriculum need to be informed by well-developed expertise in the subjects they are planning and teaching. This expertise is necessary when teachers are exercising professional autonomy in areas such as curriculum design, securing breadth and balance, and managing curriculum content. The importance of subject expertise is presented against a backdrop of uncertainty about the primary curriculum, the removal of structures and systems that teachers have become used to and the legacy of years of insufficient training for teachers in the non-core subjects. In conclusion, he suggests that professional development needs to build on, rather than discard, curriculum planning used for many years by identifying the principles on which it is organised so that teachers are able to move their practice forward from a secure base.

Time and Narrative at Eight Years Old: an essay in interpretation

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: Time and Narrative at Eight Years Old: an essay in interpretation
Author: MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 101-112
ABSTRACT This article examines an eight-year-old's story as a literary work which throws light on the extent of a young child's knowledge of the human condition and on the child's capacity to set forth her knowledge in measured prose.

What is Radical in School Geography Today?

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: What is Radical in School Geography Today?
Author: JOHN MORGAN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 113-128
ABSTRACT This article addresses the question of what 'radical school geography' might look like in the present historical moment. It traces the history of a distinctive 'radical' tradition in school geography, most prominently associated with the work of John Huckle, who argued for the importance of understanding the content and pedagogy of school geography as linked to the requirements of capital. The article updates Huckle's analysis, suggesting that contemporary school geography is characterised by: (1) an unwillingness to focus on the question of what should be taught in schools; (2) teacher identities more concerned with the skills and competences of how to teach; and (3) a 'postmodern' mood of relativism. In the light of this, the article suggests the need for radical school geography teachers to focus explicitly on the types of knowledge that can help students understand the processes of economic production and social reproduction in contemporary capitalism. In conclusion, the article briefly discusses five substantive themes that can form the basis for geography education.

Big Society? Better History? Or Same Old Nonsense? Drawing the Battle Lines for the Future of School History

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: Big Society? Better History? Or Same Old Nonsense? Drawing the Battle Lines for the Future of School History
Author: ALASDAIR SMITH
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 129-144
ABSTRACT School history looks set to return to the political agenda with the recent announcement of a curriculum review and ministerial speeches on the need for change. This article seeks to identify key issues on which the battle for school history will be fought. It situates the debate in the context of developments in theories of how people learn and in the UK tradition of history education research findings. It addresses some of the arguments raised by the Better History Group and argues that history teacher professionals are best placed to decide the future shape of history education.

Mathematics and Comprehensive Ideals

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: Mathematics and Comprehensive Ideals
Author: ANNE WATSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 145-152
ABSTRACT This article revisits methods and debates about teaching mathematics that were common in the 1980s and early 1990s, and then moves up to date with the findings from three mathematics departments that set out to make a difference for their lowest attaining students. The methods they used were distinctly focused on core mathematical ideas, and how all students could work with these. This Vygotskian approach supports students' development towards thinking in new-to-them mathematical ways, rather than accessing mathematical enquiry through particular social structures or non-mathematical modes of engagement. The author claims that any school which does not take seriously the mathematical understanding of the lowest achieving students is not truly comprehensive.

Can Education Compensate for Society?

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: Can Education Compensate for Society?
Author: RICHARD PRING
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 153-162
ABSTRACT The extent to which education can compensate for social disadvantage is a matter of political controversy, especially in the context of policies for social mobility. On the one hand, to blame poor achievement on social class or poverty was seen to dodge the professional responsibility of teachers. On the other, the strong correlation between social disadvantage and school attainment would suggest that schooling alone cannot compensate - more radical social changes are needed. This article analyses what it means to explain educational attainment in terms of social background, and seeks to avoid the confusion of such explanatory accounts with those of causality.

Can Schools Change Society?'

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:39:38 GMT

Title: Can Schools Change Society?'
Author: BERNARD BARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2011 Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Pages: 163-172
ABSTRACT This article reviews the extent to which effectiveness strategies have compensated for social disadvantage, explores the reasons offered over time for the association between disadvantage and less good student outcomes, and argues that contemporary optimism and pessimism about change and progress relate to a neo-liberal paradigm that has little to say about children's learning and even less about the slow evolution of mind and society.

Editorial. Lies, Exaggerations and Half-truths

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: Editorial. Lies, Exaggerations and Half-truths
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 275-277
ABSTRACT Not available

Learning Lessons from the Swedish Model

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: Learning Lessons from the Swedish Model
Author: SUSANNE WIBORG
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 279-284
ABSTRACT 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 findings from research on performance, segregation and cost.

A Comprehensive Response to the Coalition: how should we approach current government policies on education?

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: A Comprehensive Response to the Coalition: how should we approach current government policies on education?
Author: MELISSA BENN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 285-290
ABSTRACT 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.

From Partnership to Community Governance

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: From Partnership to Community Governance
Author: STEWART RANSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 291-298
ABSTRACT 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 upon recent research which describes how leading authorities are creating a framework of governance to support the creation of such a learning community.

The Coalition and the Curriculum

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: The Coalition and the Curriculum
Author: JOHN WHITE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 299-310
ABSTRACT The UK's new Coalition Government looks as if it will make the narrow, traditional school curriculum we have now even narrower and more rooted in the past. The Labour government made timid moves to improve the National Curriculum, not least by equipping it with a few general aims, even though these meshed poorly on to intra-subject aims. Michael Gove and Nick Gibb have both produced justifications for a traditional curriculum, but these do not stand up. This article suggests an unacknowledged rationale for it; and concludes with a critique of the Coalition's notion of a 'fair' educational system.

Education's 'Creditability Crunch': the upper secondary years

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: Education's 'Creditability Crunch': the upper secondary years
Author: MARTIN ALLEN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 311-316
ABSTRACT While the policies of the Coalition Government will divide learners and limit opportunities, education for the upper secondary years will continue to experience a more systematic 'credibility crunch' with schools and colleges facing a crisis of legitimacy and posing major challenges for reformers

Ever Reducing Democracy? A Comparative View of the Legislative Events Surrounding the Introduction of New-style Academies in 2010 and Grant-maintained Schools in 1988

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: Ever Reducing Democracy? A Comparative View of the Legislative Events Surrounding the Introduction of New-style Academies in 2010 and Grant-maintained Schools in 1988
Author: ROZ STEVENS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 317-336
ABSTRACT 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 the Education Reform Act (ERA) 1988 concerning grant-maintained schools with the Academies Act's introduction of new style academies in 2010, this article traces the growing disconnection between constitutional and democratic values and notions of how Parliament should scrutinise legislation and how schools should be held accountable by their local communities.

What Has been, What Is and What Might Be: the relevance of the critical writings of Edmond Holmes to contemporary primary education policy and practice

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: What Has been, What Is and What Might Be: the relevance of the critical writings of Edmond Holmes to contemporary primary education policy and practice
Author: COLIN RICHARDS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 337-348
ABSTRACT Edmond Holmes was His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Elementary Schools from 1905 to 1910. No full biography of Holmes has been published nor any detailed critique of his contribution to the theory and practice of education. Yet his post-retirement observations on education were widely quoted and, in some quarters, very influential. They remain pertinent today in an accountability climate which bears some resemblance to that pertaining in 1911 - the year in which Holmes' most influential book, What is and What Might Be, was published. Following a brief account of Holmes' career this article focuses on some particularly memorable passages from his educational writing where he criticized policy and practice which he traced back to the period of the Revised Code and its successors and to the shadow it continued to cast a decade or so after its formal abolition. The article also attempts a brief personal commentary on the relevance of Holmes' critique to issues in contemporary policy and practice in primary education - the twenty-first counterpart of elementary education with which he was so closely concerned.

Theorising African Caribbean Absences in Multicultural Art Education

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: Theorising African Caribbean Absences in Multicultural Art Education
Author: PAUL DASH
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 349-372
ABSTRACT This article looks at the learning of African Caribbean pupils in art and design classrooms in the United Kingdom. It proceeds from the proposition that African Caribbean pupils, as the descendants of enslaved peoples whose cultural lineage has been blurred by the skewed relationship with the white majority group, are uniquely disadvantaged in the classroom.

The Cambridge Primary Review: a voice for the future

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: The Cambridge Primary Review: a voice for the future
Author: ALISON PEACOCK
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 373-380
ABSTRACT The Cambridge Primary Review, the most comprehensive study of English primary education for forty years, is now becoming widely disseminated. This article describes ways in which schools can begin to take action immediately to implement the aims and principles offered for discussion by the Cambridge Primary Review. There is a call for the profession to become re energised and empowered through a collective endeavour to seek the best possible learning opportunities for all teachers and children through a demand for excellence in all areas of the curriculum.

Primary Science: are there any reasons to be cheerful?

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: Primary Science: are there any reasons to be cheerful?
Author: JANE TURNER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 381-394
ABSTRACT During the last decade, science in the Primary curriculum has been squeezed from different directions. The literacy and numeracy strategies restricted time for science enquiry, and the perceived importance of the science SAT restricted teachers' imaginations and confidence. The end of this SAT was announced shortly after the publication of the Rose review, which had been widely reported as recommending dropping science as a core subject. These events combined to damage the perceived profile of science in primary schools. The coalition government is now promising further curriculum review and an overhaul of primary assessment regimes, alongside stringent financial cuts in local government and higher education. This article reflects on the challenges facing primary science at such a critical juncture and asks: should we be worried about primary science? Are there any reasons to be cheerful?

Achieving Zero Permanent Exclusions from School, Social Justice and Economy

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: Achieving Zero Permanent Exclusions from School, Social Justice and Economy
Author: CARL PARSONS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 395-404
ABSTRACT Zero exclusion schools are possible. More realistically, clusters of schools, with support, coordination and brokering by the local authority (LA) or through local partnerships, can organise and sustain an inclusive educational community. Exclusion from school is a quiet mockery of Every Child Matters. Even with the coalition government's abandonment of the requirements for local attendance and behaviour partnerships (due to be in place from September, 2010) and even with the Academies Act in place, it still makes sense in terms of social justice, educational and child support and saving money to reduce exclusions. This article looks at the social justice case through secondary data and reports research and action about how committed local authorities along with their communities can successfully reduce or eliminate permanent exclusions. All political persuasions can sign up to this and prevent harm which is experienced disproportionately by some groups.

BOOK REVIEWS

Mon, 1 Nov 2010 10:41:03 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEWS
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Pages: 405-416
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial. Education plc

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: Editorial. Education plc
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 131-134
ABSTRACT Not available

Hobson's Choice: education policies in the 2010 General Election

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: Hobson's Choice: education policies in the 2010 General Election
Author: DEREK GILLARD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 135-144
ABSTRACT 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.

Representative Refusals: what comprehensives keep out, and what ministers keep to themselves

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: Representative Refusals: what comprehensives keep out, and what ministers keep to themselves
Author: PATRICK YARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 145-150
ABSTRACT 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.

The Cambridge Primary Review: a reply to R.J. Campbell

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: The Cambridge Primary Review: a reply to R.J. Campbell
Author: MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 151-154
ABSTRACT The author was disappointed by R.J.Campbell's sour critique of the Cambridge Primary Review in FORUM Volume 52 Number 1 2010. His description of the Review's proposals on curriculum and pedagogy as 'backward-looking, cumbersome and partial' is such a bizarre misjudgement that it calls for some response. The author comments in turn on R.J.Campbell's criticism of the Review's twelve aims for the primary curriculum, his doubts about the curriculum domains outlined, and his discussion of pedagogy.

Returning Education to Layering Horizons?

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: Returning Education to Layering Horizons?
Author: STEWART RANSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 155-158
ABSTRACT 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.

The Simple View of Education or Education Policy for Dummies

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: The Simple View of Education or Education Policy for Dummies
Author: JOHN WADSWORTH
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 159-162
ABSTRACT 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 models, and suggests that he has a limited grasp of his subject and the potential cost of his proposals.

Education Policy and Practice 'under' New Labour: an epistolary critique

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: Education Policy and Practice 'under' New Labour: an epistolary critique
Author: COLIN RICHARDS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 163-180
ABSTRACT Since the election of 1997 New Labour's education policy has been subject to variety of forms of critique - in this journal and others. One of the sources for such critique has been a barrage of letters unleashed for over a decade by Colin Richards in the Times Educational Supplement. Here are reproduced a self-edited selection of his published and unpublished letters, many of them informed by his belief that a sardonic sense of humour is perhaps the most potent weapon against an insensitive and professionally uninformed officialdom.

Education and the Private Finance Initiative

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: Education and the Private Finance Initiative
Author: CLIVE GRIGGS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 181-204
ABSTRACT This article reviews the development of Private Finance Initiative schemes in the United Kingdom, and reflects on how profitable opportunitees for private financiers and construction companies were created at the expense of the public sector.

Has New Labour's Numbers Drive Done Lasting Damage to State Education?

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: Has New Labour's Numbers Drive Done Lasting Damage to State Education?
Author: WARWICK MANSELL
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 205-212
ABSTRACT 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 lines to those of New Labour. Education policy seemed to become about raising schools' results to appease sceptical parents who might otherwise depart to the private sector, just as the party fought the Conservatives by trying to appeal to middle-class voters in marginal seats. But the policy has had major flaws, which may undermine state education in the long run.

The Death of Meritocracy: exams and university admissions in crisis

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: The Death of Meritocracy: exams and university admissions in crisis
Author: TREVOR FISHER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 213-232
ABSTRACT 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 expansion of higher education has benefited the middle classes. The author argues the expansion of higher education in the 1980s and changes to examinations benefited the middle class. Further, new Labour reforms of A-Level, and 16-plus examinations to include vocational subjects, paradoxically undermined their own desire for meritocracy. Coupled with wider changes, notably tuition fees and the power of elite universities to control their admissions policies to favour the privileged, A-Level reform threatens to turn higher education back to the Brideshead Revisited state of affairs of the 1930s.

Another School is Possible: developing positive alternatives to academies

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: Another School is Possible: developing positive alternatives to academies
Author: PETER FLACK
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 233-240
ABSTRACT 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 in community comprehensive schools, is being actively pursued. Its hallmarks are innovation, creativity and collaboration between schools and their teachers. The successes already achieved in Leicester under this new approach reveal the government's policy of academisation' to be 'last year's model'.

Bringing Them Together: what children think about the world in which they live and how it could be improved

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: Bringing Them Together: what children think about the world in which they live and how it could be improved
Author: JEFF SERF
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 241-254
ABSTRACT 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 perceptions of their future world. The initial stimulus for the discussions was a television advertisement for a soap detergent and in total 51 children aged 10-11 years old discussed what actions could be taken to make 'a nicer world'. The concept of global learning, which draws on aspects of environmental and development education, provided the framework for the discussions and the analyses of the outcomes. The children demonstrated their awareness of environmental issues as well as some confusion, whilst also revealing their appreciation of media strategies.

Brian Simon and FORUM

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: Brian Simon and FORUM
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 255-259
ABSTRACT This is the text of a talk given at a special one-day conference held at the Institute of Education on 26 March 2010 with the title 'Brian Simon and Educational Change: biography, history and politics'.

BOOK REVIEWS

Mon, 2 Aug 2010 16:39:47 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEWS
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 2 Pages: 261-271
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Clyde Chitty; Michael Armstrong
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 3-7
ABSTRACT In their Report on the recent Nuffield Review of 14 to 19 education and training in England and Wales, Education for All (2009), Professor Richard Pring and his co-authors cite with approval (on pages 11 and 33) Basil Bernstein's (in)famous aphorism 'education cannot compensate for society'; this then became the unfortunate title of Richard Pring's article on the Nuffield Review for a recent number of FORUM (Volume 51, Number 2, pages 197-204); and Professor Pring used it again in a recent letter to The Guardian (5 January 2010), where he called Bernstein's argument 'persuasive'.

BRAVO! and BUT...: reading the Cambridge Primary Review

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: BRAVO! and BUT...: reading the Cambridge Primary Review
Author: MARY JANE DRUMMOND
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 9-16
ABSTRACT There is much to welcome in the Cambridge Primary Review, not least its authors' determination to stimulate discussion and debate, and their resolute view that it is more important for teachers to do their own thinking than simply obey. Equally admirable is the Review's emphasis on the need to understand our recent educational past, if we are to improve education in the future. But other sections of this substantial work are less laudable. In particular, the review of the evidence on setting, streaming and structured ability-grouping, which leads to the conclusion 'Categorise with caution', is a matter of grave concern.

A Tale of Two Reviews

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: A Tale of Two Reviews
Author: CHRISTOPHER SCHENK
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 17-24
ABSTRACT This article regrets that the Final Report of the Cambridge Review was greeted with such contempt by government ministers but also argues that a more detailed consideration by the Review of the proposals in the Rose Review would have helped to build a consensus for the future.

Conservative Curriculum and Partial Pedagogy: a critique of proposals in the Cambridge Primary Review

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: Conservative Curriculum and Partial Pedagogy: a critique of proposals in the Cambridge Primary Review
Author: R. J. CAMPBELL
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 25-36
ABSTRACT This article offers a critique of proposals for curriculum reform and pedagogy in the Cambridge Primary Review. It is argued that the proposals on curriculum lack innovatory character, and if adopted, would reduce opportunities for teacher and school experimentation. The proposed national framework of domains has its provenance in centralised models developed in the 1970s and 1980s. A proposal for the inclusion of religious education in a national statutory framework is judged at best to be privileging religious institutions, and at worst to be supporting indoctrination. In respect of pedagogy the emphasis given to one version of constructivist pedagogy, dialogic teaching, is questioned. Alternative, more radical proposals, that might have been developed, are suggested.

A Possible Accountability Framework for Primary Education: building on (but going beyond) the recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: A Possible Accountability Framework for Primary Education: building on (but going beyond) the recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review
Author: COLIN RICHARDS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 37-42
ABSTRACT This article accepts the need for primary school accountability at three levels and indicates how this can be met within the current political climate by building on the recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review, whilst acknowledging, for the present at least, political susceptibilities over testing.

Come Rain or Shine: a whole school approach to Forest School

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: Come Rain or Shine: a whole school approach to Forest School
Author: MARTYN VANDEWALLE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 43-48
ABSTRACT This article begins by describing a typical Forest School session that takes place in every class every week at The Wroxham School in Potters Bar. It goes on to outline a brief history of Forest School from its inception, its aims and ethos, and how it has been adapted for the ethos and needs of the children at Wroxham. The article also looks at the impact that outdoor activities have had on the children and parents with quotes collected from various members of the school community. Finally, the article focuses on the next steps for Forest School and outdoor learning at Wroxham.

Seeing the Wood for the Trees

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: Seeing the Wood for the Trees
Author: MEABH RITCHIE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 49-52
ABSTRACT This article is an informal description of a forest school outdoor programme designed to boost emotional literacy, inclusion and attainment of secondary school pupils with a range of learning and behavioural difficulties.

Forest School: reclaiming it from Scandinavia

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: Forest School: reclaiming it from Scandinavia
Author: POLLY SHIELDS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 53-60
ABSTRACT 'Forest schools' are an increasingly well-known feature of the educational landscape, having been adopted by many local authorities across the United Kingdom in an effort to build children's confidence and self-esteem through learning outdoors in a woodland setting. Their origins are usually described as deriving from a Scandinavian (particularly Danish) tradition which was introduced to the UK in the early 1990s. This article explores, and suggests links with, the history of a similar movement called 'woodcraft' which flourished almost a century ago, and which informed the pedagogy of a small progressive school (itself called Forest School) which existed in Hampshire in the 1930s.

Copenhagen Campaigners: an active citizens project

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: Copenhagen Campaigners: an active citizens project
Author: ROHAN KNOX
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 61-68
ABSTRACT In the lead-up to the Copenhagen Climate talks in December 2009, Islington Council's Sustainable Schools Officer involved seven local schools in an engaging citizenship project entitled 'Copenhagen Campaigners'. The aim of the project was to raise pupil's awareness of this historic global event and empower them to take action on a local level.

Incredible Edible: how to grow sustainable communities

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: Incredible Edible: how to grow sustainable communities
Author: PAUL CLARKE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 69-76
ABSTRACT This article seeks to provide an outline of the basic ideas and approaches used by the Incredible Edible programme, a community enterprise that is based in the United Kingdom. To do this the author briefly (1) defines the context for the programme, (2) defines the concepts that inform the programme, (3) and illustrates some of the action of the programme, and (4) identifies the essential changes which that needs to occur in local governance in order to support a sustainable model of community. The Incredible Edible community is one that is ready to absorb changes needed to ensure that human society becomes harmonious with the natural environment, and at the same time remains economically viable and personally fulfilling for the individual citizens.

From Global Challenge to Local Efficacy: rediscovering human agency in learning for survival

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: From Global Challenge to Local Efficacy: rediscovering human agency in learning for survival
Author: BARRY PERCY-SMITH
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 77-86
ABSTRACT There is an assumption underlying education for sustainable development that all we need do is learn the skills and knowledge to live sustainably. Yet, many already know the issues and know we should act, but we don't. This article argues that a key part of the problem is that we live according to myths and daydreams perpetuated by a growth oriented global economic system such that ecological collapse remains surreal in our lives. The article argues that for any meaningful progress to be made in response to environmental challenges we need to reconnect with the roots of our existence, become fully conscious of the contradiction between the living daydreams of our lives and the reality of our relationship with nature and become more critically self-aware about our choices, actions and impacts in our everyday lives at a local level. This requires a different approach to education.

'Getting and Spending, We Lay Waste Our Powers': environmental education and the culture of the school

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: 'Getting and Spending, We Lay Waste Our Powers': environmental education and the culture of the school
Author: MICHAEL BONNETT
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 87-92
ABSTRACT 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 that is detected as a continuing pervasive influence and that is understood as an expression of an underlying 'metaphysics of mastery' in respect of both the human and the natural world. This posture is criticised in terms of its enervating effect on the ability of individuals to engage with the school environment and its destructive effect on the milieu of the school. It concludes that a central ambition of environmental education must be to work towards a school culture that recognizes that non-instrumental caring is an authentic way of knowing and that celebrates poetic responsiveness as a fundamental condition of education.

Education for Survival

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: Education for Survival
Author: RICHARD ALDRICH
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 93-98
ABSTRACT 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.

'Gifted and Talented': a label too far?

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: 'Gifted and Talented': a label too far?
Author: MIKE LAMBERT
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 99-106
ABSTRACT 'Gifted and talented' has become the official way of referring to high-achieving, able school pupils. The author questions the validity and appropriateness of this label and calls for a more sophisticated and inclusive framework.

Reasons to Be Cheerful: the story of one community school and the New Labour government

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: Reasons to Be Cheerful: the story of one community school and the New Labour government
Author: KATY SIMMONS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 107-118
ABSTRACT This article was originally presented at a seminar run by the Secondary Umbrella Group on the theme of 'A Review of Labour's Achievement: Where next for secondary education?' It looks at the struggle of one secondary school and its local community to improve educational opportunities and life chances for its students. The author, a long-term governor at the school, uses the school's story as a lens through which to look at some of the major educational initiatives of New Labour's time in office. Without those initiatives, the school's story - and the lives of its students - would be very different. The school's fortunes have been fundamentally and positively affected by government policies, as they have also been shaped by the political policies of their Local Authority. Readers are left to determine for themselves which policies have offered most to the young people at the school.

Bring Back Das Kapital Punishment! Credit Crunch and the Fall of the 'Knowledge Economy'

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: Bring Back Das Kapital Punishment! Credit Crunch and the Fall of the 'Knowledge Economy'
Author: IAN STRONACH; JOHN CLARKE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 119-123
ABSTRACT Not available

Ending Rejection at 11+: see how it can be done

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:17:55 GMT

Title: Ending Rejection at 11+: see how it can be done
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2010 Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Pages: 125-127
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 271-272
ABSTRACT Not available

The Question of Admission: the RISE Report

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: The Question of Admission: the RISE Report
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 273-275
ABSTRACT This article examines the findings of the recent London School of Economics RISE Report looking at policies relating to secondary school admissions in England.

Is Choice of School Just a Mirage?

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: Is Choice of School Just a Mirage?
Author: MIKE BAKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 277-278
ABSTRACT 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.

Feeling the Crunch: education policy and economic crisis

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: Feeling the Crunch: education policy and economic crisis
Author: HOWARD STEVENSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 279-288
ABSTRACT 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 fundamental issues posed by the crisis. This is likely to have significant and long term consequences for education policy. In this article the importance of understanding the relationship between education policy and the wider economy is emphasised, as is the extent to which the shape of the former is increasingly driven by the imperatives of the latter. The article begins by exploring the relationship between education policy and the economy, and then identifies ways in which the current economic crisis is likely to shape education policy in the short and medium term. It argues that whilst the consequences for education policy are likely to be deeply damaging, there are new opportunities to reassert the case for education as a public good based on the values of local democracy and economic stability.

Extravagant Aims, Distorted Practice

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: Extravagant Aims, Distorted Practice
Author: JAMES PORTER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 289-298
ABSTRACT 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, central government has taken detailed control of education and a distorted economic metaphor has been applied to every aspect of the service. This article outlines key aspects of the story and urges a sustained response.

'O Rose, thou art sick', 'O Testing, thou art malign': a critique of two official reports (with apologies to William Blake)

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: 'O Rose, thou art sick', 'O Testing, thou art malign': a critique of two official reports (with apologies to William Blake)
Author: COLIN RICHARDS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 299-304
ABSTRACT 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 curriculum and its assessment.

The Rose Report [continued]: 'the invisible worm'

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: The Rose Report [continued]: 'the invisible worm'
Author: MARY JANE DRUMMOND
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 305-308
ABSTRACT 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.

Choosing the Right Approach: New Labour and the care and education of young children

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: Choosing the Right Approach: New Labour and the care and education of young children
Author: JOHN WADSWORTH; ROSALYN GEORGE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 309-318
ABSTRACT 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 which New Labour has been effective in unifying services, raising the status of Early Years practitioners, addressing under funding together with challenging disadvantage and social exclusion.

'This is Determination': grassroots opposition to Academies

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: 'This is Determination': grassroots opposition to Academies
Author: PATRICK YARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 319-322
ABSTRACT This article reports on current campaigning against the British government's policy of opening hundreds of Academy schools.

Science Education and Religion in the post-Darwin era: an historical perspective

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: Science Education and Religion in the post-Darwin era: an historical perspective
Author: TIFFANY PRINCE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 323-332
ABSTRACT 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 taught alongside evolution in the science classroom. However, these are not new views. Indeed, they have been around since the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859. The article focuses on the main anti-evolutionary movements which arose in the 20th century such as the ideas leading to the Scopes Trial, Flood Geology and Neo-creationism. It analyses the reasons for the emergence of these movements with the aim of understanding the conditions which motivate the development of fundamentalist religious ideas. Conclusions are drawn about why this debate still persists today and about the impact this has had on science education. One might ask: 'Why are the polar ends of the spectrum so prominent in the public arena?'

Sexism and Permanent Exclusion from School

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: Sexism and Permanent Exclusion from School
Author: ANNA CARLILE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 333-346
ABSTRACT Focussing on narratives collected during a two year participant observation research project in the children's services department of an urban local authority, this article addresses the intersection between incidents of permanent exclusion from school and assumptions made on the basis of a young person's gender. The article considers gendered class reproduction through the choice of GCSEs; gender normativity in single sex schools; and the relationship between domestic violence and sexual aggression in incidents of school exclusion. It finishes with an account of some of the work being done to develop the professionals' support strategies and young people's self-management skills necessary to tackle these effects.

'Strong in their Minds': young people's poems across an ocean

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: 'Strong in their Minds': young people's poems across an ocean
Author: CHRIS SEARLE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 347-362
ABSTRACT This article stresses the quality of universality within young people's poetry. The writer uses the poetry mainly written by children of Pakistani origin living in Pitsmoor and Fir Vale in north-east Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, as a stimulus for the creative writing of children of the Mohawk nation in the reservation school of Tyendinaga Territory in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The similar qualities and themes of both sets of poems illustrate both the internationalism of the imagination, and a critical consciousness within children that stretches across oceans.

Explorations of Lifelong Learning Ethics

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: Explorations of Lifelong Learning Ethics
Author: JOHN IGBINOMWANHIA
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 363-376
ABSTRACT 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 attention as follows: first, on the contests between the meaning of inclusion in lifelong learning to lifelong learners and the meaning of inclusion in lifelong learning to the state, and second on the ethical concerns facing lifelong learners. Finally, the ethics are explored of the practice of inclusion in lifelong learning through the ethical dilemmas that face teachers and advisers of lifelong learners.

Lessons from the Past: the importance of educational history

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: Lessons from the Past: the importance of educational history
Author: DEREK GILLARD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 377-390
ABSTRACT For the past twenty years, the training of teachers in England has consisted of little more than instruction in 'delivering' the National Curriculum. In this piece, Derek Gillard argues that there are now encouraging signs of a resurgence of interest in the history of education. He reviews the new edition of Clyde Chitty's Education Policy in Britain, which looks at the history of education from a political perspective, and summarises the content of his own website, which is devoted to the history of Education in England.

Chris Woodhead: a new champion of eugenic theories

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: Chris Woodhead: a new champion of eugenic theories
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 391-394
ABSTRACT Eugenic Theories are clearly alive and well in present-day society - or this is at least true of those theories relating to the passing on of abilities and talents from one generation to the next. This depressing thought was prompted by a reading of Chris Woodhead's latest book A Desolation of Learning.

How 'Edu-babble' Turns Pupils into 'Customers'

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:33:41 GMT

Title: How 'Edu-babble' Turns Pupils into 'Customers'
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Pages: 395-396
ABSTRACT 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.

EDITORIAL A Game of Snakes and Ladders

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: EDITORIAL A Game of Snakes and Ladders
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 115-116
ABSTRACT As I write this Editorial at the beginning of May 2009, there is really very little to be cheerful about, but I will try to look for the 'green shoots' of educational recovery.

To begin on a sour note, Sir Alan Steer's Report for the Government on school discipline produced a predictable spate of negative and despairing newspaper stories on 15 April 2009, the day that it was published; and the BBC One television programme 'The Big Questions', broadcast on 19 April, actually featured a debate as to whether it was now time to reintroduce corporal punishment in schools.

The Enduring Nature of Egalitarian Education in Scandinavia: an English perspective

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: The Enduring Nature of Egalitarian Education in Scandinavia: an English perspective
Author: SUSANNE WIBORG
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 117-130
ABSTRACT It is the aim of this article to contribute towards an understanding of why Scandinavia and England have achieved very different levels of social integration in their state school systems.

The Uncertain Character of Recent Educational Reform in Greece

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: The Uncertain Character of Recent Educational Reform in Greece
Author: ANNA TRAIANOU
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 131-142
ABSTRACT This article outlines the main education reforms that have taken place in Greece from the 1960s until the present. The author discusses how the direction of these reforms has been influenced not only by 'global' pressures for 'modernization' but also by the distinctive socio-cultural Greek context. The conclusion stresses that despite the various attempts to reform the Greek education system key issues about the purposes of education provision remain unresolved.

Short and Fraught: the history of primary education in England

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: Short and Fraught: the history of primary education in England
Author: DEREK GILLARD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 143-164
ABSTRACT Official reports on primary education are a bit like London buses. You wait ages and then three come along at once. There has been no major report on primary education since the 1967 Plowden Report Children and their Primary Schools. Now, final reports are awaited from the Cambridge Primary Review and the government-appointed Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum, and the Children Schools and Familes Select Committee has just published its report on the National Curriculum. This piece aims to place these reviews in their historical context.

Playful Words: the educational significance of children's linguistic and literary play

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: Playful Words: the educational significance of children's linguistic and literary play
Author: MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 165-184
ABSTRACT This article is the text of a keynote address given to the North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation at its annual conference in Chicago in February 2009. Three examples of children's linguistic and literary playfulness are examined, two from England and one from the USA. The article explores the radical implications of these examples for primary education, identifying four values in particular that children's literary play calls for: empathy, freedom of time and space, conversation, and documentation.

Happy Fiasco! The National Curriculum Tests of 2008, and After

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: Happy Fiasco! The National Curriculum Tests of 2008, and After
Author: PATRICK YARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 185-196
ABSTRACT This article, which draws heavily on the Sutherland Inquiry report into the delivery of National Curriculum testing in 2008, outlines important aspects of the failure that year to report test-scores on time, considers the extent to which ministers might have been held more accountable and reviews the state of the long struggle to replace the current form of NC testing with less-damaging alternative forms of assessment.

Education Cannot Compensate for Society: reflections on the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: Education Cannot Compensate for Society: reflections on the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training
Author: RICHARD PRING
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 197-204
ABSTRACT This article is a synopsis of the main argument of the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training - in particular, the problems which gave rise to the Review, the ways in which the government has responded, and how the Review believes policy and practice should develop in the future.

Southampton: a case study on why Academies are not the answer

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: Southampton: a case study on why Academies are not the answer
Author: RICHARD HARRIS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 205-214
ABSTRACT The author recounts the arrival of two Oasis Community Learning Academies in Southampton through a process of failed political courage to continue supporting the Local Authority. He tells of the subsequent impact when children and parents react against the regime in one of the Academies. In conclusion he challenges the Labour Government over the issues that arise from this case and similar Academy problems.

Opposition Education Policies

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: Opposition Education Policies
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 215-226
ABSTRACT This article examines some of the recent documents and policy statements on education policy from the two main opposition parties. It argues that, while we have reached the stage where New Labour and Conservative pronouncements on education are more or less interchangeable, the Liberal Democrats have made a genuine attempt to forge a distinctive and progressive policy of their own.

Mandela, Manchester: a response to establishment pessimism

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: Mandela, Manchester: a response to establishment pessimism
Author: CHRIS SEARLE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 227-232
ABSTRACT This article includes some of the remarkable poems to be included in Mandela, Manchester , an anthology of school students' work dedicated to the inspirational life of Nelson Mandela.

Enjoy and Achieve: finding opportunities to action the Every Child Matters framework to provide opportunities for children and adults to work collaboratively on an outdoor learning project

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: Enjoy and Achieve: finding opportunities to action the Every Child Matters framework to provide opportunities for children and adults to work collaboratively on an outdoor learning project
Author: EMMA SNOWDEN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 233-240
ABSTRACT Every Child Matters (ECM), an agenda for agencies working with children, was introduced following the tragic death of Victoria Climbié 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 ECM agenda was actioned. The agenda outlined radical change for children's services and individuals working with children. In 2003 I was employed as a science teacher in a South East London mixed comprehensive. I implemented and managed the Healthy Schools initiative. At the time I struggled to find a tangible definition of ECM and what form it could take in a school setting. Now, working with students, training to become professional educators I introduce ECM as a framework. It enables individuals within an educational setting to start to share ideas that are context specific and relate directly to those it affects. In order for the framework to be successful it needs to be focussed and recognise all successes, small and large.

The Switch to Private Pension Plans for Teachers, 1982-2002: a case of freedom of choice or financial scandal?

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: The Switch to Private Pension Plans for Teachers, 1982-2002: a case of freedom of choice or financial scandal?
Author: CLIVE GRIGGS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 241-258
ABSTRACT In the early 1980s the Conservative Administration introduced legislation to promote private personal pension plans for public sector workers. An army of commission-driven sales staff from the financial services industry sought to persuade teachers and others to abandon their inflation-proof pension schemes for those offered by private companies. It took some time before it was realised that this was a retrograde step for most employees taking this advice. Fortunately, trade unions were well represented within the public sector and they interceded on behalf of their members and exposed the fraudulent behaviour of established financial companies. The Financial Services Authority not only fined the financial services companies thousands of pounds but forced them to restore employees to the situation they would have been in if they had ignored the advice given earlier. This financial scandal took nearly 20 years to resolve satisfactorily. Teachers and other employees learned a hard lesson: most private companies put the profit motive before service to customers, they are not necessarily more efficient than the public sector and financial consultants are, in effect, sales persons whose advice is usually motivated by commission and bonus payments. Painful though the experience of many teachers had been, by the Autumn of 2008 the whole country would be shaken by the disastrous effects of a weakly regulated free market financial system.

Initial Teacher Training or Education? ITT or ITE?

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: Initial Teacher Training or Education? ITT or ITE?
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 259-261
ABSTRACT 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.

BOOK REVIEW

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 11:37:43 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEW
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 2 Pages: 263-267
ABSTRACT The Professionals: better teachers, better schools (Phil Revell), reviewed by Derek Gillard

Editorial, A Checklist Society

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: Editorial, A Checklist Society
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 3-4
ABSTRACT Not available

Education, Inequality and Erosion of Social Cohesion

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: Education, Inequality and Erosion of Social Cohesion
Author: ANDY GREEN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 5-8
ABSTRACT Income inequality has been rising in Britain for two decades and wealth is also more unequally distributed now than when New Labour first came to power. Various factors have contributed to this, including education which, according to the PISA 2006 data, has more unequal outcomes in the UK than in all but 2 of the 29 tested countries. Comparative analysis of the PISA data suggests that countries with the most comprehensive education systems, such as the Nordics, have the most equal outcomes, whereas school choice and diversity in the UK may well be contributing towards high educational inequality.

The Reinvention of the Comprehensive School System in Finland: how do market-oriented reforms impact upon equity and equality of opportunity?

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: The Reinvention of the Comprehensive School System in Finland: how do market-oriented reforms impact upon equity and equality of opportunity?
Author: ANNAMARI YLONEN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 9-24
ABSTRACT This article examines the changing nature of comprehensive schooling in Finland since the 1990s and focuses on analysing the impact of the changes on equity and equality of opportunity. Comparisons are made between the development of 'school markets' in the south of the country and the situation in the north of the country where the case study municipality is situated. The developments in this municipality are found to be in contrast to the situation in the south of the country, particularly in the capital Helsinki, where competitive education markets have been encouraged to develop, creating more diversity and more competition between schools for students. This suggests that the various local areas can have their own policy priorities with contrasting policy aims, reflecting, in part, financial considerations and constraints which can have very different outcomes for equality of opportunity.

Teaching Advocacy in Early Years Initial Teacher Education Programmes

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: Teaching Advocacy in Early Years Initial Teacher Education Programmes
Author: BETTY J. LIEBOVICH; SUSAN MATOBA ADLER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 25-34
ABSTRACT Teacher education programmes in the United States and in England with early childhood certification usually include courses with topics such as early childhood theory and curriculum, child development, model programs, and history of early childhood education but less often include courses with content focused specifically on advocacy. This article interrogates the possibility of developing courses on advocacy for pre-service teachers to build a knowledge base on advocacy for parents, families and children and to develop competency in inter-personal, cross-cultural communication. Drawing on data from Liebovich's study on beliefs about advocacy of early childhood education students in the United States, the authors share pre-service teachers' narratives about advocacy, discuss the process of moving from advocacy awareness to empowerment, and propose content for a university level course on advocacy in England and the United States. Using a feminist theoretical perspective, this study critiques teacher education programs and how student identity as advocates is rarely nurtured. The authors demonstrate how pre-service teachers reflect about the role teacher's play working with, informing, and empowering families to truly become collaborative partners in the education of their children.

Failure in Education

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: Failure in Education
Author: PETER CARPENTER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 35-40
ABSTRACT In this article, it is argued that Kurt Hahn felt that it was important for children to experience 'failure' at times and to learn how to cope with it. If this is no longer desirable in the classroom, it ought to be possible to encourage children to be adventurous and 'take risks' in a wide range of Outward Bound activities.

Just a Few Giggles? Teachers and the Howler

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: Just a Few Giggles? Teachers and the Howler
Author: PATRICK YARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 41-48
ABSTRACT 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?

Us and Them: a history of pupil grouping policies in England's schools

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: Us and Them: a history of pupil grouping policies in England's schools
Author: DEREK GILLARD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 49-72
ABSTRACT The selection of children in England's schools for different types of education can be seen operating at three levels: between schools, within schools and within classes. This article deals mainly with the second - the allocation of pupils to classes - but it also refers to selection for secondary education and to the grouping of pupils within classes because decisions at all three levels are interlinked. It describes the ways in which pupils have been allocated to teaching groups since the 1860s, noting relevant sections of government reports and white papers, the arguments made by educationists, and the findings of research projects.

The Privatisation of Education

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: The Privatisation of Education
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 73-84
ABSTRACT This article looks at one of the dominant themes of English education over the past twenty years. It examines the various ways in which privatisation has affected schools and schooling since the early 1980s. It may no longer be possible to indulge in a blanket defence of the public sector; but we do at least have to recognise that privatisation in general and the spread of Academies in particular pose a very real threat to the values and principles underpinning 'a national system, locally administered'.

Crunch Time for the Diplomas: will they survive?

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: Crunch Time for the Diplomas: will they survive?
Author: MIKE BAKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 85-92
ABSTRACT This article looks at the introduction of the diplomas as part of the 14-19 reforms in England. It questions whether they can survive the low initial take-up from students, the lack of interest from key parts of the schools sector, and the confusing messages about what sort of qualification they are meant to be. It also asks whether the diplomas will be undermined by a misguided search for 'parity of esteem'.

What Next in School Reform?

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: What Next in School Reform?
Author: BERNARD BARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 93-100
ABSTRACT This article reviews the current state of education reform in the United Kingdom and uses the BBC film The Choir to explore alternative ways of improving the quality of learning and teaching in schools.

Physical Education, the Policy Entrepreneur and Comprehensive Schooling: can they exist in harmony?

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: Physical Education, the Policy Entrepreneur and Comprehensive Schooling: can they exist in harmony?
Author: MALCOLM THORBURN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 101-105
ABSTRACT This article analyses the ways in which policy entrepreneurs have recently influenced physical education (PE) policy and practice in England and Scotland and discusses some of the implications this might have for students' learning opportunities within comprehensive schools in future years. And, while considerations of this sort raise a plethora of political, institutional and epistemological questions; the focus of this article is on the role of the policy entrepreneur in shaping policy discussion. This is a relatively new consideration in policy analysis terms, but a critical one in PE at present, given the rise of charitable foundations like the Youth Sport Trust and The Winning Scotland Foundation, and the influence these organisations have of government thinking and action plans.

The CASE Statement on Faith Schools

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: The CASE Statement on Faith Schools
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 107-107
ABSTRACT Not available

BOOK REVIEW

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:23:10 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEW
Author: Jenifer Smith
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2009 Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Pages: 109-111
ABSTRACT Learning What Matters to Children: an alphabet of what learners do (Diane Rich, Mary Jane Drummond & Cathy Myer)

Editorial. The Story of FORUM, 1958-2008

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: Editorial. The Story of FORUM, 1958-2008
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 281-293
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorials from the first two issues of FORUM

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: Editorials from the first two issues of FORUM
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 295-297
ABSTRACT Not available

Messages from Tony Benn and Margaret Tulloch

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: Messages from Tony Benn and Margaret Tulloch
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 299-299
ABSTRACT Not available

Symposium. Reflections on the 1988 Education Reform Act

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: Symposium. Reflections on the 1988 Education Reform Act
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 301-314
ABSTRACT For this 50th anniversary edition, FORUM invited a group of readers, many of whom were teaching 20 years ago, to reflect on the implications of the 1988 Education Reform Act from a personal viewpoint. The resulting symposium brings together a rich, unique and often candid collection of thoughts and reflections written from a wide variety of perspectives.

A Rural Comprehensive Forty Years On

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: A Rural Comprehensive Forty Years On
Author: ROGER SECKINGTON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 315-320
ABSTRACT Drawing on a lengthy link with a particular school together with wider experience of work in the secondary sector, an argument is made for supporting all-ability, neighbourhood schools with strong community links. Rather than the endless centrally imposed tinkering as each new governmental regime produces its' latest 'big idea'; it is important to recognise that the development of schools should be a steady, organic process. Clearly given the great differences in catchment areas support must reflect need but the principle of neighbourhood community schooling should be paramount.

Revisiting Teachers as Learners

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: Revisiting Teachers as Learners
Author: LIZ THOMSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 321-328
ABSTRACT This article revisits the concept of teachers as learners within the context of radical changes that have taken place within the education system in England over the past 25 years. The concept of professional courage is discussed and examined in relation to questions and issues raised by Paulo Freire in a series of letters to teachers (1997). Further questions are raised about professional courage in order to provide a basis for a dialogue concerning this critical yet unremarked characteristic of outstanding teachers and learners.

Her last two Editorials for FORUM

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: Her last two Editorials for FORUM
Author: ANNABELLE DIXON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 329-322
ABSTRACT Not available

An extract from Bending the Rules

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: An extract from Bending the Rules
Author: BRIAN SIMON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 333-336
ABSTRACT Not available

The National Curriculum Since 1988: panacea or poisoned chalice?

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: The National Curriculum Since 1988: panacea or poisoned chalice?
Author: DENIS LAWTON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 337-342
ABSTRACT Not available

The UK National Curriculum: an historical perspective

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: The UK National Curriculum: an historical perspective
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 343-348
ABSTRACT Not available

Education and Social Mobility

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: Education and Social Mobility
Author: PETER WILBY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 349-352
ABSTRACT Not available

The Birth of a School Academy in North Norwich: a case study

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: The Birth of a School Academy in North Norwich: a case study
Author: JOHN ELLIOTT
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 353-366
ABSTRACT This article raises the question, 'Is the rapid expansion of the school Academies programme consistent with the Government's policy of enabling socially disadvantaged local communities to participate in making decisions that shape the quality of their lives?'

Lifting the Lid and Mucking about with Minds: the example and challenge of Room 13

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: Lifting the Lid and Mucking about with Minds: the example and challenge of Room 13
Author: PATRICK YARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 367-376
ABSTRACT Nicholas Serota calls Room 13 'the most important model for artistic teaching in school that we have in the UK.' This article describes and considers aspects of the Room 13 initiative. Begun more than a decade ago in Scotland and now spreading internationally, Room 13 treats pupils as artists and business-people. By working alongside adult professional artists-in-residence, pupils grow as artists and improve their visual literacy while taking charge of all aspects of the Room's management and devising ways to meet its running-costs. Impelled by pupils, Room 13 provides a venue where flourish vital elements of education which current state policy represses or neglects.

In Praise of Wasting Time in Education: some lessons from the Romantics

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: In Praise of Wasting Time in Education: some lessons from the Romantics
Author: DAVID HALPIN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 377-382
ABSTRACT Far too much curriculum time in primary schools is overly regulated and assessment driven, with the result that many children attending them are either bored or made to feel anxious. The antidote to this tendency is for teachers to rediscover the value of deregulated ('wasted') curriculum time via a renewed commitment to the value of play, fostered by an initial acquaintance with Romantic conceptions of childhood.

Transgendered Children in Schools: a critical review of Homophobic Bullying: safe to learn - embedding anti-bullying work in schools

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: Transgendered Children in Schools: a critical review of Homophobic Bullying: safe to learn - embedding anti-bullying work in schools
Author: NATACHA KENNEDY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 383-396
ABSTRACT The author argues that the interests of transgendered children are being ignored by the Department for Children, Schools and Families and that the publication of guidance on homophobic bullying only serves to highlight deficiencies in the way these children are excluded within the education system.

Inclusion or Selection? The 14+ Education and Training Reforms

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: Inclusion or Selection? The 14+ Education and Training Reforms
Author: DAVID KITCHENER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 397-410
ABSTRACT This article provides a chronologically presented overview of policy reforms designed to enhance skill levels via education and training for school-age learners attending post-compulsory education institutions. It is argued that the catalyst for the creation of vocational diplomas is economic rather than educationally based, arising from the Government's perception of the need to improve productivity and flexibility within the United Kingdom workforce. Consideration is given as to whether the reforms enhance inclusive practice or represent a divisive curriculum, young people being partially excluded from the National Curriculum to study vocational diplomas, and invites comment as to whether this represents a covert return to a selective grammar/secondary modern school model. Arrangements for information sharing between schools and colleges presently delivering vocational qualifications and the support available for young special educational needs learners is investigated via a small-scale study of 15 further education colleges and found to be largely inadequate. Further education lecturing staff attitudes suggest they are largely positive about the possibilities the new arrangements can bring to young people's lives but are concerned as to the lack of staff development they have received.

Global Learning in a Changing and Unpredictable World

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: Global Learning in a Changing and Unpredictable World
Author: JEFF SERF
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 411-418
ABSTRACT This article asserts that the changing nature of present-day society has significant implications for education. However, it questions the extent to which the current educational 'diet' provided to the majority of young learners is fit for purpose, i.e. how far it is preparing them to survive and thrive in, and contribute to, an increasingly globalised society. The article explores some of the features of a fit for purpose education and the possibility that the domination of the curriculum by core subject areas or core skills and the resulting marginalisation of other essential elements may not be meeting the educational needs of young people who, after all, will be living in a society that many of us can barely envisage. Future citizens will require, and have a right to, Global Learning - an educational experience that is fit for purpose.

NEWS REPORT Anti-academy Group in Barrow

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: NEWS REPORT Anti-academy Group in Barrow
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 421-422
ABSTRACT Not available

BOOK REVIEW

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 09:44:26 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEW
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Pages: 423-428
ABSTRACT The Education Debate (Stephen J. Ball), reviewed by Clive Griggs

Editorial. School Size: deepening the debate

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: Editorial. School Size: deepening the debate
Author: SHEILA DAINTON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 163-166
ABSTRACT Like following life thro' creatures you dissect

You lose it in the moment you detect

Alexander Pope, Moral Essays

It is unlikely that anyone reading this issue of FORUM will not have a view about school size. Recent press coverage might suggest that this is a new debate. However, it comes as no surprise that the issue was well aired in an edition of FORUM published over 30 years ago. In an article headlined 'In Defence of Large Schools', Clyde Chitty, then second deputy head of a comprehensive school in south-east London, argued that 'our current preoccupation with the size of school issue is little more than thinly-disguised political propaganda, aimed at discrediting the comprehensive reform ... If big schools can be shown to be bad, ipso facto comprehensive schools are bad'.

Big or Small: does the size of a secondary school matter?

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: Big or Small: does the size of a secondary school matter?
Author: MARK NEWMAN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 167-176
ABSTRACT The relationship between the size of a school and various education outcomes continues to interest parents, campaigners and politicians. This article summarises some of the arguments made in relation to the importance of school size and explores the results of a systematic review of 31 research studies on the effects of secondary school size. Overall, the review found that directions and patterns of effect vary for different outcomes. The results of the review suggested that there was little empirical evidence to justify policies aimed at changing or mandating particular school sizes. However, given the continuing interest in the issue and indications that more research is becoming available, the author suggests that continuing rigorous systematic evaluation is needed to explore the association between school size and outcomes.

Smaller Schools: a conflict of aims and purposes?

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: Smaller Schools: a conflict of aims and purposes?
Author: MARY TASKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 177-184
ABSTRACT This article tracks recent developments in the debate about secondary school size. It looks at the growth of the small schools movement in the United States and at initiatives currently underway in the United Kingdom. The article explores various strategies for reconfiguring secondary schools into smaller learning communities or 'schools within schools' and argues that the appeal of smaller learning communities in schools springs from very different value positions which need to be clearly articulated and publicly debated.

Envy of a Bigger One: moving beyond phoney debates on school size

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: Envy of a Bigger One: moving beyond phoney debates on school size
Author: GEOFF BARTON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 185-190
ABSTRACT In this article Geoff Barton argues that the debate about large versus small schools is a largely phoney one that misses the essential point about the quality of provision. Using Michael Barber's international comparisons, he suggests that our focus should be on creating the conditions for teachers to teach as well as they can, and proposes that a streamlined staffing structure would help to regain this focus. He says that large schools are best placed to lead this change rather than fighting rearguard campaigns in the big versus small debate.

School Structures: transforming urban complex schools into better learning communities

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: School Structures: transforming urban complex schools into better learning communities
Author: MAX HAIMENDORF; JACOB KESTNER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 191-198
ABSTRACT This article, which forms part of the policy booklet Lessons from the Front written by participants and Ambassadors of the Teach First scheme, argues that educational outcomes are often adversely affected by the size and structure of many urban complex schools. Rather than multiplying the efforts of teachers, too often the organisational model of these schools works against them, militating against the development of effective teacher-student relationships. For many teachers, the fruits of their efforts are 'merely' that the world does not fall down around their ears: not too many fights occur, expulsions are kept to a minimum and there are just enough GCSEs at A*-C. Clearly this is not good enough. The article considers how organisational structures in urban complex schools can work to multiply teachers' efforts, creating learning communities that foster more positive educational outcomes.

From Comprehensive High Schools to Small Learning Communities: accomplishments and challenges

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: From Comprehensive High Schools to Small Learning Communities: accomplishments and challenges
Author: DIANA OXLEY; JULIA KASSISSIEH
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 199-206
ABSTRACT This article describes progress made in organizing US high schools into small learning communities, a practice spurred by the recognition that many of America's large comprehensive high schools had become impersonal and alienating. Small learning community reforms show a pattern of sustained growth over the last four decades but also frequently fail to achieve instructional improvements. The challenge in making instructional improvements is to pursue sound instructional strategies which small scale uniquely positions teachers to carry out, and to make shifts in district policy and practice which currently pose barriers to adopting such strategies.

Why are School Subjects Important?

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: Why are School Subjects Important?
Author: DAVID LAMBERT
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 207-214
ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to contribute to the contemporary debate by supporting school subjects. The article explores the technicist manner in which teachers' work is now configured and highlights ways in which competitive, output-led models and tick-list approaches have reified schools as qualification factories. Arguing for a deeper understanding of subject disciplines in the school curriculum, the author critiques contemporary approaches to the secondary curriculum planning and organisation and shows ways in which important debates about what is taught are being marginalised. The article points to the intellectual vacuum that can lie at the heart of practical curriculum making when subjects no longer take a leading part. It concludes that teachers' capacity to think synoptically about a subject is essential for the effective teaching of integrated themes or topics and that excellent, innovative teaching of subject disciplines is vital in twenty-first century schools.

Does Size Matter? A Primary Perspective

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: Does Size Matter? A Primary Perspective
Author: COLIN RICHARDS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 215-218
ABSTRACT This article discusses some of the arguments and values underlying the issue 'Does size matter?' Using findings from inspection evidence (his own and others') the author explores possible answers to the question as it applies to primary education in England. He concludes that in determining whether 'size matters' evidence has to be considered and weighed in relation to values. He provides his own evaluation.

If You Go down to the Woods Today ...: developing a whole-school culture where it is safe to take risks

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: If You Go down to the Woods Today ...: developing a whole-school culture where it is safe to take risks
Author: ALISON PEACOCK
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 219-214
ABSTRACT Children have much to learn from the natural environment and from working in partnership with each other. This article explores the real-life challenges of encouraging creative adventurous play within the perceived confines of the primary curriculum. The author shares the story of a whole-school learning adventure and aims to remind us of the importance of values such as trust, co-agency and freedom.

Thugs, Hooligans and Snotty Noses: the implications of leading and managing an all-age school

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: Thugs, Hooligans and Snotty Noses: the implications of leading and managing an all-age school
Author: HEIDI SWIDENBANK
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 225-234
ABSTRACT While there has been a tradition of all-age schooling within the private sector it has not, until recently, been typical in state schools. However, there appears to be a growing trend in which all-age schools, i.e. schools that comprise multiple phases (usually primary and secondary) are becoming more popular. This article summarises the main findings of research undertaken by the author into the implications for leading and managing all-age schools and suggests ideas for future research.

Trainspotting: leadership at a critical junction

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: Trainspotting: leadership at a critical junction
Author: ROBIN PRECEY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 235-242
ABSTRACT This article argues that education leaders in this country, and indeed leaders of other public services, are facing life-changing decisions. The way ahead is full of possibilities and pitfalls. The article employs the metaphor of a railway journey to explore these. In particular it considers the implications for leaders in terms of how they prepare for, and display, leadership in the current complex and seemingly contradictory policy climate.

Building Schools for the Future: setting the hares running

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: Building Schools for the Future: setting the hares running
Author: JOHN MITCHELL
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 243-254
ABSTRACT This article looks at the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme and its stated intention to 'transform learning' from the perspective of the author's involvement as an architect/facilitator. Reflecting on his experiences, he focuses on the possibilities of the programme as a learning and change process, rather than as simply a building-focused programme. He explores some of the important themes which need to be addressed and looks at the conceptual/theoretical framework possibly most useful to make sense of the process. Finally, he looks at some of the implications for the design and facilitation of a BSF programme, and the physical and organisational design of a school to support this process.

The Era of Centralisation: the 1988 Education Reform Act and its consequences

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: The Era of Centralisation: the 1988 Education Reform Act and its consequences
Author: TREVOR FISHER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 255-261
ABSTRACT In a FORUM article published in 2005 (Volume 47, Nos 2 & 3) Terry Wrigley argued that 'Another school is possible'. The article prompted Trevor Fisher to respond explaining why, in his view, the centralising thrust of the 1988 Education Reform Act, the shift in power relationships, the politicisation of education over the past two decades and politicians' rigid control over education policy and processes, make the reality of a radical alternative to the current regime increasingly difficult. The author charts developments since the 1988 Act and calls for a Royal Commission to undertake a root-and-branch investigation into the politicisation of education.

Steve Sinnott, 1951-2008. Tributes from Clyde Chitty and Richard Garner

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: Steve Sinnott, 1951-2008. Tributes from Clyde Chitty and Richard Garner
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 265-267
ABSTRACT Not available

BOOK REVIEWS

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:55:27 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEWS
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 2 Pages: 275-278
ABSTRACT Children Writing Stories (Michael Armstrong), reviewed by Jenifer Smith and Clare Kelly, pages 269-275

Fair Enough? School Admissions: the next steps (compiled by Comprehensive Future) reviewed by Patrick Yarker

Editorial. A Government Totally Adrift

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: Editorial. A Government Totally Adrift
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 3-4
ABSTRACT It is obviously far too early to provide a detailed assessment of the new Brown administration's attitude towards education and social policy. As I write this, the New Labour Government is, in fact in the middle of a period of profound crisis, due largely to the whole issue of illegal financial donations to the Labour Party by proxy. But it is important to emphasise that, notwithstanding all the problems of the past few weeks, the real difficulty with the new Government is tied up with Gordon Brown's own lack of consistency and with the curious and indeed fatal contradictions at the heart of the Brown project. So often Brown says one thing to one audience and something else to another; and this approach leads inevitably to confusion and paralysis.

Further Reflections on the Great City Academy Fraud

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: Further Reflections on the Great City Academy Fraud
Author: FRANCIS BECKETT
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 5-10
ABSTRACT Academy sponsors have generally behaved with great arrogance, knowing that they enjoyed the enthusiastic support of Tony Blair's Government. And this has been particularly true of Catholic and evangelical sponsors, who believed that Blair's premiership was the best chance they would ever have of bringing about a seismic shift of power in schools from the state to the churches. Yet it seems clear that the academy project is not working out as its supporters originally intended, and it might well be that Gordon Brown's new Government will feel obliged to jettison large parts of the original scheme.

Blair's academies: the story so far

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: Blair's academies: the story so far
Author: DEREK GILLARD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 11-22
ABSTRACT Of all Tony Blair's education policies during his decade as prime minister, one of the most controversial was his plan to create a network of academies - effectively, private schools funded by the taxpayer. This piece explores the origins of the policy and recounts the widespread concerns and criticisms with which it has been beset.

The School Academies Programme: a new direction or total abandonment?

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: The School Academies Programme: a new direction or total abandonment?
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 23-32
ABSTRACT The concept of City Academies owes much to the plan for a network of City Technology Colleges announced by Conservative Education Secretary Kenneth Baker in 1986. This article argues that all this can be viewed as part of the inroad of business into state education, with private sponsorship seen by government as the magical solution to the 'problems' faced by state schools. Moreover, recent additions to the network of Academies appear to share the ethos of the early CTCs in specialising in business and enterprise and other vocational specialisms. In response to some of the criticisms that Academies have received, some commentators are now arguing for a new direction for these schools and for a model which emphasises local co-operation and social cohesion. But it can be argued that all this falls far short of what is really needed: a long-term strategy for restoring Academies to the maintained sector and for making them accountable to the communities they serve.

Academies in Action: case studies from Camden and Pimlico, 2007

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: Academies in Action: case studies from Camden and Pimlico, 2007
Author: MELISSA BENN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 33-40
ABSTRACT Both main UK political parties lend enthusiastic public support to academies, in the name of supporting the nation's poorest pupils. But Gordon Brown's Labour is, in reality, unsure about this undemocratic model while the Tories may well in the future exploit academy 'independence' for retrograde ends. Two contemporary case studies from London, in Camden and Pimlico, show the inherent dangers of this controversial national programme; they represent a blow to a truly modernised comprehensive model and give too much power to private interests. The private sector is keen to get involved for its own, often defensive, reasons. Meanwhile, Brown's Government has little time left to make truly substantive changes to our education system that will really benefit those that need it most.

Academies: a breakthrough or yet more spin?

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: Academies: a breakthrough or yet more spin?
Author: STEVE SINNOTT
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 41-48
ABSTRACT In this article the General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers outlines the reasons why the Union opposes Academies, and gives an overview of the changes in the relationship between local authorities and Academies. The NUT recognises that the change of government presents an opportunity for a change of direction and welcomes reports that a study has been commissioned. An analysis of recent evidence on Academies, including that of the influential House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, is followed by the NUT's views of the what the next steps should be on Academies and on supporting schools in challenging circumstances.

How Academies Threaten the Comprehensive Curriculum

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: How Academies Threaten the Comprehensive Curriculum
Author: ROGER TITCOMBE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 49-60
ABSTRACT The Freedom of Information Act was used over a three-year period to investigate the curriculum of state schools and academies. The resulting data has shown that spectacular apparent school improvement, in terms of five or more A*-C GCSE /GNVQ passes has been largely brought about by the substitution of mainstream curriculum subjects by much easier vocational alternatives with disproportionate and unjustifiable equivalence to GCSE. Despite academies being exempt from FOI, and their refusal, supported by DCSF, to reveal their subject examination results, strong evidence has been found in individual cases of an extreme use of this strategy to boost headline results and league table performance. Examples are given of worryingly degraded curriculum opportunities in a number of academies for which data has been indirectly obtained, giving rise to concerns that some or even all pupils in some of these schools are being denied a right to a broad and balanced educational experience appropriate to full participatory citizenship in a modern European democracy. Private control of academies is revealed as likely to give rise to the differentiation of curriculum pathways with academic or vocational outcomes designed to meet the needs of the business interests of the sponsor. Questions are raised over the ability of academies to staff a full range of subjects at GCSE and sixth form level with serious consequences for progression to higher education especially for those pupils drafted at an early age into vocational pathways.

Haberdashers' Aske's: the campaign against academies in Lewisham

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: Haberdashers' Aske's: the campaign against academies in Lewisham
Author: MARTIN POWELL-DAVIES
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 61-70
ABSTRACT The National Union of Teachers' 2007 pamphlet Academies - Looking Beyond the Spin: why the NUT calls for a different approach lists six reasons why the NUT opposes Academies, schools run by private sponsors using public money. In this article, the Secretary of the Lewisham NUT presents evidence to show how the Academies operated by the Haberdashers' Company in Lewisham, South London, carry out each of these six threats to education.

Hey! Bankers! Leave Those Kids Alone: the fight to save Islington Green School

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: Hey! Bankers! Leave Those Kids Alone: the fight to save Islington Green School
Author: KEN MULLER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 71-84
ABSTRACT The author traces the history of the campaign to stop Islington Green School being closed and turned into an academy specialising in business and financial services. Although the campaign, after a number of successes now looks as if it might fail in its immediate objective, the author argues that the battle was still worth fighting because of the contribution it has made to the growing anti-academies movement in England.

Why a Steiner Academy?

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: Why a Steiner Academy?
Author: KEVIN AVISON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 85-96
ABSTRACT This article examines the curious position of the Academy model in the English school system and how a potential Hereford Steiner Waldorf Academy might figure in this. It sketches the background to the Steiner movement in the UK and goes on to set out the key aspirations and concerns of Steiner educators regarding an Academy. The article provides a Steiner Waldorf rationale for seeking Academy status and suggests a positive critique beyond the piecemeal 'agenda' that appears to drive current education policy in this area.

The Devon NUT Campaign Against Trust Schools

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: The Devon NUT Campaign Against Trust Schools
Author: DAVE CLINCH
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 97-102
ABSTRACT When the Devon County Council announced that six secondary schools in the South Devon area were to become 'Pathfinder Schools' for trust status, the Devon National Union of Teachers set about organising a campaign to defend the county's comprehensive schools. This campaign has proved successful in the case of Tavistock College, causing other schools to review their position, but the NUT is not allowing itself to be complacent, and recognises that the very concept of community comprehensive schools is under threat from Gordon Brown's Government.

Reforming Teachers and Uncompromising 'Standards': implications for social justice in schools

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: Reforming Teachers and Uncompromising 'Standards': implications for social justice in schools
Author: ROSALYN GEORGE; JOHN CLAY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 103-112
ABSTRACT As a major consumer of public funds education has become one of the most highly surveilled and accountable professions in the United Kingdom. In this article the authors chart the changes and reforms to teacher training and in particular the impact of the 'standards' agenda on the teaching profession. They analyse the impact that the Teacher Development Agency (formally the Teacher Training Agency) and the Every Child Matters agenda has had on the promotion of an agenda for social justice and equality in schools.

Personalised Corruption: testing, cheating and teacher-integrity

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: Personalised Corruption: testing, cheating and teacher-integrity
Author: PATRICK YARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 113-126
ABSTRACT The government's plans for students in KS2 and KS3 to be 'tested when ready' mark an attempt further to embed instrumentalist views of education. 'Testing-when-ready' is seen as an intensification of the harmful regime of testing, targets and League Tables which Mansell (2007) labels 'hyper-accountability'. Highlighting aspects of Mansell's book together with recent research into teacher-'cheating' and resistance to high stakes testing in the USA, this article concludes with a call for teachers here to safeguard their willingness to consider and understand the learning which tests don't see.

The 2007 Revised Standards for Qualified Teacher Status: doubts, challenges and opportunities

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: The 2007 Revised Standards for Qualified Teacher Status: doubts, challenges and opportunities
Author: PHIL JACKSON; JEFF SERF
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 127-136
ABSTRACT September 2007 saw the introduction of the new 'Q' standards for the award of Qualified Teacher Status. Drawing on a meeting of 140 primary and secondary school ITT tutors, this article sets out to record and discuss the teachers' initial reactions to these new standards a few weeks before their introduction. The article shows classroom teachers have significant concerns about a significant minority of the standards and this indicates that HEIs and other ITT providers now have a challenging management of change agenda.

Not National but Local and Global

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: Not National but Local and Global
Author: DAVID ROSENBERG
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 137-146
ABSTRACT The author describes the theory and practice of a project that took place in Summer 2007 in four classes within three inner city primary schools, that brought together History, Geography and Global citizenship within a progressive educational framework.

BOOK REVIEWS

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:14:36 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEWS
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2008 Volume: 50 Issue: 1 Pages: 147-159
ABSTRACT The Great City Academy Fraud (Francis Beckett), reviewed by Clive Griggs

The Rise and Rise of Meritocracy (Geoff Dench, Ed.), reviewed by Clyde Chitty

Education by Numbers: the tyranny of testing (Warwick Mansell), reviewed by Patrick Yarker

Eugenics, Race and Intelligence in Education (Clyde Chitty), reviewed by Lucy Russell

Editorial: the Blair legacy

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Editorial: the Blair legacy
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 203-206
ABSTRACT Whether we concentrate on foreign or domestic issues, the Blair legacy is a decidedly mixed one, and obviously open to a number of varying individual interpretations; that said, I feel able to state with some degree of confidence that much of it will not have earned the endorsement of FORUM readers and supporters.

An editorial which appeared in the Observer on 29 April 2007 listed some of the positive features of the past decade, thereby justifying the heading of the piece, which proclaimed, 'after 10 years, Blair has made Britain a better place'. According to the Observer, Blair's solid achievements included: the minimum wage; free nursery care; tens of thousands more teachers, doctors and nurses - with higher wages; the working families' tax credit; the right to increased maternity and paternity leave; a statutory right to flexible working hours; the Disability Rights Commission; the Freedom of Information Act; civil partnerships and the repeal of Section 28; the restoration of self-government for London; devolution for Scotland and Wales; the Human Rights Act; peace in Northern Ireland. In the view of the Observer, 'Mr Blair's Government has given millions of people unprecedented freedom to live as they choose and has also given them the wealth and security to do it'.

Yet there is a much bleaker side to the story of the Blair years. New Labour has shown itself to be as besotted with the rich and the successful as were the Conservative administrations which preceded it. Public sector workers have had their morale constantly undermined by a government that has insisted on portraying them as obstacles on the path to modernisation. In the Health Service, reforms have been confusing and often plain contradictory - first dismantling and then reinstating the internal market. Indeed, there are so many areas where New Labour has been determined to adopt and expand the Conservatives' privatising agenda. According to the staunch Blairite John Hutton, former Work and Pensions Secretary, speaking recently on the BBC Radio Four Today programme, Tony Blair's greatest achievement was in ensuring that 'the marketisation of the public services is now built into the DNA of public service provision'.

Where education is concerned, there is remarkably little to applaud. Right from the outset, Blair's Government seemed determined to carry forward most of the Conservative Party's education agenda, even if some of the language used by ministers was calculated to hide the true extent of this seamless continuity. Back in 1999, I edited with John Dunford, now General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, a collection of essays entitled State Schools: New Labour and the Conservative legacy. We asked Guardian and Times Educational Supplement (TES) cartoonist Martin Rowson to provide a suitable drawing for the cover of the book, and he came up with a brilliant cartoon which seemed to neatly summarise the essential message of the book's contributors. A gowned and mortar-boarded head teacher (unmistakably Margaret Thatcher) is shown handing a prize to a beaming, blazered student (unmistakably Tony Blair). The prize is obviously a neat scroll of Mrs Thatcher's education policies.

At the end of June this year, former Education Secretary Estelle Morris wrote an extraordinarily blinkered and ill-informed article for Education Guardian (26 June 2007), with the headline 'Don't forget what Blair has achieved', in which she said she had no doubt that 'history will record Tony Blair's contribution to education as one of the most significant of any of our prime ministers'. She went on with a paean of praise to Blair's qualities and achievements:

his personal drive, commitment and leadership; the time he gave to education; the number of school visits he made and educationists he met - all this must be unmatched by any of his predecessors. ... He has always shown determination and skill in driving through the issues he thought were important, and he led a government that has delivered the biggest ever sustained increase in funding.

What Ms Morris failed to highlight in this articles was the divisive nature of Blair's education policies, with education being seen as a market commodity driven by consumer demands, and parental choice of schools being facilitated by greater teacher accountability and the publication of league tables of test and examination performance.

There can surely be no denying that Blair was a remarkable politician and actor with an ability (on most occasions) to convince a supine audience that their concerns were also his. With no roots in the Labour movement, he managed to survive for over a decade while actively disliking the party he was elected to lead in 1994. The adoption of the label 'New Labour' was no mere cosmetic tinkering; it represented a complete break with the values and principles that the Labour Party had once upheld. Those values could hardly have been described as truly radical or socialist; but there had been some sense of a collectivist vision and a commitment, however mealy-mouthed, to the idea of greater social equality and to the gradual amelioration of the worst excesses of free-market capitalism. Under Blair, the gap between the rich and the poor actually widened, with most ministers clinging to the belief, popular with all greedy entrepreneurs, that the prosperity of the few must eventually lead to the well-being of the many.

There are those - and I'm thinking here principally of Guardian columnists Jackie Ashley and Polly Toynbee, who are often viewed as Gordon Brown's representatives on earth - who have argued that everything would change for the better under the new Prime Minister. Yet there have so far been few positive signs of a radical break with the past and certainly, where education is concerned, there is little cause for optimism. Gordon Brown is no longer committed to a truly comprehensive system of secondary schools; and, in his final Mansion House Speech as Chancellor, he said he shared Blair's vision of securing 400 city academies by the year 2010. He also said that 'we need a renewed focus on setting by ability in key subjects as the norm in all our secondary schools'.

The Executive of the Campaign for State Education (CASE) has recently sent an open letter to Gordon Brown (see CASE Notes, Issue 20, July 2007) arguing that, in recent years, 'choice' has become a means of selection, 'diversity' a route to ethnic, religious and class segregation, and PFI (Private Finance Initiative) a means of privatisation of public assets involving a major loss of local accountability. CASE is particularly concerned about the expansion of the academies programme - the subject of a forthcoming special number of FORUM in the spring of 2008. In the words of the open letter, 'this programme, driven as it is by the inexplicable belief that religious zealots or unaccountable private corporations are more worthy custodians of a child's well-being than that child's own local community and the people they elect to run their local affairs, exemplifies much of the worst in state education today'.

I must admit I have little optimism that Gordon Brown will start listening to the views of progressive educationists; but that doesn't mean we must stop campaigning for a state education system that will benefit all our children.

Faith Schools are Still a Recipe for Social Disaster

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Faith Schools are Still a Recipe for Social Disaster
Author: JONATHAN ROMAIN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 207-212
ABSTRACT This article argues that the creation of a range of separate religious schools can prevent integration and encourage separation. It might well be that in fifty years' time, people will look back at this moment and blame us for exacerbating the social fragmentation that characterises modern Britain.

Never Mind the Evidence: Blair's obsession with faith schools

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Never Mind the Evidence: Blair's obsession with faith schools
Author: DEREK GILLARD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 213-218
ABSTRACT In this article the author describes how the Blair governments have sought to increase the number of schools controlled by churches and other religious groups despite a mass of evidence about the dangers of faith-based education and in the face of widespread professional, political and public concerns.

The Malign Effects of Faith Schools

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: The Malign Effects of Faith Schools
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 229-236
ABSTRACT The author argues that faith schools serve to exacerbate existing divisions in society and are therefore a threat to social cohesion. In many parts of Britain where segregation is already a reality, 'faith' has now become another word for 'race'. Ethnic groups are not evenly spread between the religions, creating a situation where religion is used as a 'proxy' for ethnicity. At the same time, there is the distinct possibility that some faith schools (and academies sponsored by faith groups) will use their power to influence the curriculum to undermine the values of a liberal, tolerant and enlightened society.

Socialists and Religious Schools

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Socialists and Religious Schools
Author: PATRICK MURPHY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 237-246
ABSTRACT This article argues that the issue of religious control of schools is becoming more and more important with every day that passes. We have a situation where one-third of our state schools are faith schools, and the New Labour Government seems intent on increasing their number. It is the author's contention that the state should not be allowed to fund and privilege religious schools, and that the Left should not be mealy-mouthed in campaigning for a fully secular education system.

Keeping the Faith

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Keeping the Faith
Author: LUCY RUSSELL
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 247-260
ABSTRACT This article argues that we live in a culturally, politically and religiously diverse society and that faith schools are the product, rather than the cause, of this diversity. As an easy target for those with fears about social cohesion, faith schools are being ‘scapegoated’.

Every Child Matters: the challenge of gender, religion and multiculturalism

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Every Child Matters: the challenge of gender, religion and multiculturalism
Author: PRAGNA PATEL
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 261-276
ABSTRACT This article makes use of the findings of a small pilot study which investigated the management and nature of multiculturalism in three secondary schools in London. In the course of the investigation, two major themes emerged: the 'collapse' of anti-racism and multiculturalism into 'multi-faithism'; and the impact of the 'over-accommodation' of religious identity on the rights of minority ethnic girls.

Faith Schools: minorities, boundaries, representation and control

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Faith Schools: minorities, boundaries, representation and control
Author: JULIA BARD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 277-280
ABSTRACT This article explores the implications of funding increasing numbers of religious schools on the children of minority communities. It argues that handing responsibility for schooling to religious bodies undermines transparency, democracy and accountability in educational provision. Far from promoting 'inclusion' as the Government claims, increasing the number of religious schools atomises and isolates communities, stifles debate and marginalises complex expressions of identity.

Hermetically Sealed Learning: my experience of Jewish schools

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Hermetically Sealed Learning: my experience of Jewish schools
Author: DAVID ROSENBERG
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 281-284
ABSTRACT This article looks at the cultural impact of faith schools on their pupils in terms of what it teaches them about their own identity, and what it fails to teach them about the identities of people whom they live among in the wider society. On the basis of personal experience it attempts to tease out the assumptions on which such an education is based and the limitations it places on those who pass through this kind of system.

Coping with Classroom Homophobia

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Coping with Classroom Homophobia
Author: MARCOS 'QBOY' BRITO
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 285-288
ABSTRACT In this article, a version of which first appeared in the February 2007 number of Gay Times, gay rapper Marcos Brito describes his experiences of dealing with a general climate of homophobia at his secondary school in Essex. He argues that positive affirmations of lesbian, gay and bisexual people should be promoted as part of the school curriculum.

Flightlines: exploring early readers for children about the refugee experience

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Flightlines: exploring early readers for children about the refugee experience
Author: JULIA HOPE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 289-298
ABSTRACT Much has been written about children's literature that deals with war, and specifically the Holocaust, but very little has been said about the portrayal of the refugee experience in children's books, which is now developing as a significant genre of its own. The rapid growth in these books, which are aimed at all ages, has not been documented separately and yet there are compelling messages that derive from them about citizenship, tolerance, respect and integration, as well as the enduring nature of the human spirit in the face of terrible circumstances. This article focuses particularly on books about the refugee experience written for the younger reader, and their suitability for the age group they are aimed at.

Learning for Labour: specialist diplomas and 14-19 education

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Learning for Labour: specialist diplomas and 14-19 education
Author: MARTIN ALLEN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 299-304
ABSTRACT The 2006 Education Act provided an entitlement for all 14 year-olds to take a specialist diploma from 2013. Despite concerns of many educationalists and politicians, the first diplomas will begin in September 2008. New Labour claims that the diplomas are innovative and challenging; however, this article argues that they exhibit many of the weaknesses and contradictions of existing vocational qualifications, will accentuate divisions and represent a further move away from a comprehensive curriculum. The article also argues, however, that in addition to opposing the introduction of the diplomas, reformers must rethink approaches towards vocational learning in schools.

Seizing the Moment: improving curriculum and pedagogy prospects for physical education in Scotland

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Seizing the Moment: improving curriculum and pedagogy prospects for physical education in Scotland
Author: MALCOLM THORBURN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 305-310
ABSTRACT This article points out that recent government pronouncements clearly envisage an enhanced status for the provision of physical education in schools in Scotland. This being the case, it is essential that policy makers, researchers and teachers examine many of the contested aims and conflicting agendas now in existence so that outcomes can match investment.

Denial and Distortion of Instrumental and Intrinsic Value in the Teaching of Science and English: its impact upon fifteen Year 10 teachers

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Denial and Distortion of Instrumental and Intrinsic Value in the Teaching of Science and English: its impact upon fifteen Year 10 teachers
Author: ROBERT BUTROYD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 311-318
ABSTRACT This article focuses on the impact of schooling on teachers through an exploration of the teaching of Science and English to Year 10 pupils in a metropolitan area in the north of England. Data was collected from 15 case studies through semi-structured interviews with the teacher, a lesson observation, and a post-observation interview with a sample of pupils. The analysis revealed a denial of intrinsic value, and the distortion of instrumental value contributing to the mortification of the teachers' substantial self. Denial, distortion and mortification are not found in all the case studies, but to a significant extent in 11 of these. The four exceptions were all teachers of English. If teaching is to be an attractive occupation and retention of staff is to be improved, particularly for science teachers, then issues of intrinsic and instrumental value need to be addressed along with the debilitating effects of mortification.

Black Pupils in a White Landscape: reclaiming the countryside for enriched learning experiences

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Black Pupils in a White Landscape: reclaiming the countryside for enriched learning experiences
Author: HELEN MOORE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 329-336
ABSTRACT This article focuses on the accepted identity of the countryside as a hegemonic, idyllic and stable environment. Making use of the experiences of a group of 25 15-year-old London students on a recent residential trip to the Dorset coast, it seeks to understand whether or not the countryside is seen as a 'welcoming place' for inner-city children.

Beyond Behavioural Management Strategies: an alternative viewpoint from the pupil perspective

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: Beyond Behavioural Management Strategies: an alternative viewpoint from the pupil perspective
Author: ALLAN FOWLER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 337-344
ABSTRACT The article begins by discussing the literature as it relates to the perceived effectiveness of behavioural management approaches, as well as the author's experiences of implementing a behavioural approach. The second part highlights an alternative viewpoint, as derived from an empirical study, as it relates to the pupil perspective of effective teaching and learning environments.

DOCUMENT. Evidence to the Committee of Enquiry into Academy Schools

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: DOCUMENT. Evidence to the Committee of Enquiry into Academy Schools
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 345-346
ABSTRACT Not available

LETTER. The Disadvantages of Faith-based Academies and Trusts: schooling - don't be seduced by promises

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: LETTER. The Disadvantages of Faith-based Academies and Trusts: schooling - don't be seduced by promises
Author: Richard Harris
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 347-348
ABSTRACT Not available

BOOK REVIEWS

Thu, 4 Oct 2007 10:36:30 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEWS
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Pages: 349-355
ABSTRACT Faith Schools: consensus or conflict? (Roy Gardner, Jo Cairns & Denis Lawton, Eds), reviewed by Derek Gillard, 349

Education plc: understanding private sector participation in public sector education (Stephen J. Ball), reviewed by Clive Griggs, 353

A Comprehensive Future: quality and equality for all our children (Melissa Benn & Fiona Millar), reviewed by Patrick Yarker, 355

Editorial

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: DEREK GILLARD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 3-6
ABSTRACT In August 1963 the UK's Minister of Education, Sir Edward Boyle, asked the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) 'to consider primary education in all its aspects and the transition to secondary education' (Central Advisory Council for Education, 1967, p. iii). The Council, chaired by Bridget Plowden, presented its report to Anthony Crosland, Secretary of State for Education and Science, in October 1966, and the Plowden Report Children and their Primary Schools was published, 40 years ago this year, in 1967. A similar report was produced for Wales.

'At the heart of the educational process lies the child'. That much-quoted opening sentence from chapter 2 set the tone of the report. Child-centredness and learning by discovery were the two key messages which most people took from Plowden. Many regarded them as radical new ideas. Some viewed them as dangerously subversive.

Yet, as Bridget Plowden herself wrote (in 1987), 'we did not invent anything new' (p. 120). The report certainly 'endorsed the trend towards individual and active learning' and 'learning by acquaintance' and hoped that many more schools would be influenced by it. Yet it also warned 'we certainly do not deny the value of learning 'by description' or the need for the practice of skills and consolidation of knowledge' (p. 120).

Hadow had promoted these ideas 30 years earlier, but they go back much further than that. Indeed, as Aubrey Nunes (n.d.) points out, 'the idea of learning by doing is a good one. It has a long and ancient history'. He traces it back to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and argues that it resurfaced in the Renaissance in The Scholemaster by Elizabeth I's teacher, Roger Ascham (1515-1568).

But this long and honourable ancestry didn't prevent the backlash against Plowden. In the years after its publication it was blamed for just about everything from an infant's poor spelling to national economic failure, and its message about the centrality of the child in the educational enterprise was misrepresented by traditionalists and ignored by politicians. The 'Black Papers' were followed by Jim Callaghan's Ruskin speech and the 'Great Debate'. Then, from 1979, Margaret Thatcher's administrations set about creating a 'schools crisis' in preparation for their ruthless marketisation of education.

A leader in the Times Educational Supplement (TES) (6 March 1987) summed up the situation well. 'The Plowden Report has been misquoted, misunderstood, over-simplified, torn to shreds by academics and used by a few schools to justify some fairly mindless practice'. Twenty years on, it said, 'primary teachers are beset by criticism, renewed accusations (unsupported by evidence) of falling standards in basic skills, and calls for a national curriculum and 'benchmarks' at 7 and 11'.

We didn't just get benchmarks. The 1988 Education Reform Act imposed a sterile, content-based National Curriculum, a grotesquely complicated regime of tick boxes and tests, and a system of school league tables which replaced cooperation with competition. And just when we all thought things could only get better, along came Tony Blair's New Labour administrations. With their Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, they've gone even further than the Tories, telling teachers not only what to teach but how to teach it.

So where are we now, 40 years on? And, perhaps even more importantly, where are we going? This issue of Forum tries to answer these questions. In doing so, it unashamedly celebrates Plowden as the great, humane statement about the possibilities of primary education which it undoubtedly was.

It begins by looking back to the precursors of Plowden - the Hadow Reports. It was, after all, Hadow's proposal, in 1926, for the division of schooling into two stages with the break at 11, which led to the creation of primary schools; and it was the Hadow Reports of 1931 and 1933 which set out a vision of the style of education the new schools should espouse.

Next, in pieces by Peter Cunningham, Paul Warwick, Brian Melling and Philip Gammage, it reviews the history of Plowden in the experience and consciousness of teachers. As Peter Cunningham says, the report 'hangs like a backdrop, setting the scene in which these teachers lived their professional lives'.

Then, it examines a range of Plowden-related issues in the light of events since the report was published. Mike Brogden argues that changes in the design of school buildings had little effect on what went on in them; Alicia James assesses Plowden's part in changing adult concepts of childhood; and Trevor Kerry asks if integration is a 'dirty word' or a 'golden key'. Michael Armstrong analyses the art work of three young American children; Mike Aylen argues that Plowden played an important role in promoting parental participation in primary schools; and Leslie Carrick reviews foreign language teaching from Plowden to the present. Elizabeth Wood argues that the concept of child-centred education has re-emerged within contemporary social policy initiatives; Michael Tidd looks at what happened to the middle schools which Plowden proposed; and George Smith, Teresa Smith and Tom Smith revisit Educational Priority Areas.

It brings the story up to date with Maurice Galton's analysis of the effects of New Labour's education policies on primary schools and their pupils, and with Diane Hofkins's review of her 20 years as assistant editor of the TES.

And finally, it looks to the future with Robin Alexander's piece about the new Primary Review, which he is leading. Supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and based at Cambridge University's Faculty of Education, the Review aims to be 'a wide-ranging and independent enquiry into the condition and future of primary education in England' (Primary Review website: see Links below). Given all that has happened in the 40 years since Plowden, the Review is timely and welcome.

The Review team is anxious to receive ideas and evidence, so if you get this copy of Forum in time, do visit the Primary Review website (see Links below) for details of how to contribute. The deadline for submissions is 1 April 2007.

It is easy - especially at my age! - to wallow in rose-tinted remembrances of the past. But looking back has its value, for it is only by knowing the past that we can understand the present, and only by understanding the present that we can hope to do better for our children in the future.

Maurice Kogan 10 April 1930-6 January 2007

As I finished writing the above editorial, I learned of the death of Maurice Kogan. He will be remembered for his many books and for his work at Brunel University. But for readers of Forum - and especially of this issue - he will best be remembered as the Secretary of the Plowden Committee, a job which enabled him to promote the importance of evidence-based educational research of value to both practitioners and theorists.

In May last year I wrote to Maurice to ask him if he would contribute an article to this issue. He replied: 'I'm glad to be asked but a bit overwhelmed with requests for productions that are not at the top of my own agenda - which includes contending with ill health. So I must beg to be excused. At 76 one is entitled to some rest!' After such a long and distinguished career, he is certainly entitled to that.

Anne Corbett's obituary of Maurice Kogan can be found on the Guardian website at:

http://education.guardian.co.uk/obituary/story/0,,1986788,00.html

DEREK GILLARD

References

Central Advisory Council for Education (1967) Children and their Primary Schools. The Plowden Report. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

Nunes, A. (n.d.) From Plato to Plowden. http://www.pigeonpostbox.co.uk/ppbmisc/others.php

Plowden, B. (1987) 'Plowden' Twenty Years On, Oxford Review of Education, 13(1), p. 119ff. http://www.dg.dial.pipex.com/documents/plowdenore09.shtml

Links

Derek Gillard's website (http://www.dg.dial.pipex.com) includes the full texts of all the Hadow Reports and the Plowden Report.

Primary Review website. http://www.primaryreview.org.uk

Presaging Plowden: an introduction to the Hadow Reports

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Presaging Plowden: an introduction to the Hadow Reports
Author: DEREK GILLARD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 7-20
ABSTRACT The author provides notes on the historical context and membership of the consultative committees chaired by Sir W.H. Hadow, summarises each of the six reports produced between 1923 and 1933, and assesses the extent to which they informed the development of education in England, noting that the Plowden Committee felt compelled to reiterate many of Hadow's recommendations.

Plowden in History: popular and professional memory

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Plowden in History: popular and professional memory
Author: PETER CUNNINGHAM
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 21-32
ABSTRACT The author reflects on the way that the Plowden Report is represented in the historical record. Simple narratives of education policy are inadequate to capture the Report's significance in a decade of cultural turmoil, and the professional contention that it generated. Historical accounts will vary according to the viewpoint of the historian, and we must have regard to oral as well as documentary evidence. Following the Plowden Report, subsequent researches in the primary classroom and changes in state education policy indicate its practical and symbolic importance, but the memories of teachers are sometimes more muted in their recall of its impact on their practice.

Echoes of Plowden? Opportunities and Pressures Evident in Teachers' Experience of Autonomy and Accountability in One School Community

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Echoes of Plowden? Opportunities and Pressures Evident in Teachers' Experience of Autonomy and Accountability in One School Community
Author: PAUL WARWICK
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 33-38
ABSTRACT In the light of some of the aspirations for education expressed in the Plowden Report, this short piece considers the experiences of teachers in a 'progressive' English independent school. There is a particular focus on what might loosely be termed job satisfaction. It is suggested that, whilst these teachers enjoy their work, they have professional concerns about externally imposed notions of accountability, about professional autonomy and about the significance of the school community - issues that seem linked and that will have resonance for many in the teaching profession.

Plowden and Me: a personal memoir

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Plowden and Me: a personal memoir
Author: BRIAN MELLING
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 39-46
ABSTRACT The author argues that the Plowden Report, though rarely read, underpinned the work and careers of many primary school teachers. He relates his own experiences of teaching in schools and expresses his pleasure at having rediscovered Plowden through his work in a further education college Child Studies department.

None So Blind: early childhood education and care - the connective tissue

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: None So Blind: early childhood education and care - the connective tissue
Author: PHILIP GAMMAGE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 47-54
ABSTRACT The author makes sense of the story of his professional life through the eyes of several important writers and teachers on education and says that, for him, Bridget Plowden ranks alongside John Dewey, Friedrich Froebel, Ben Morris and A.S. Neill.

Plowden and Primary School Buildings: a story of innovation without change

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Plowden and Primary School Buildings: a story of innovation without change
Author: MIKE BROGDEN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 55-66
ABSTRACT The Plowden Report encouraged the design of more compact and flexible school buildings to accommodate its vision of child-centred teaching. These schools came to be known as 'open plan'. By the late 1970s about 10% of schools were of open-plan design but researchers found serious weaknesses in the quality of their work. Plowden's ideals were not often to be found in practice in open-plan schools. Changes in teaching methodologies had not kept pace with innovation in school design and the rhetoric of child-centredness was not matched by the reality of the experience of many primary pupils. The explanations for this include the conservatism of teachers as well as the propensity to failure of centrally imposed ideas.

Adult Concepts of Childhood: did Plowden make a difference?

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Adult Concepts of Childhood: did Plowden make a difference?
Author: ALICIA JAMES
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 67-76
ABSTRACT The author reviews the concepts of childhood which underpinned traditional methods of teaching and assesses the extent to which these concepts have changed since the Plowden Report and the advent of child-centred education.

Integration: dirty word or golden key?

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Integration: dirty word or golden key?
Author: TREVOR KERRY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 77-92
ABSTRACT This article examines the notion of integrated studies as a way of organising curriculum in schools. Drawing on the insights of educational philosophy, curriculum theory and learning theory it establishes the soundness of a theoretical case for integration. It examines what this view means for the art and science of teaching, and notes examples of successful integration in schools. The paper identifies the roots of integrated studies in the thinking of the Plowden Report and suggests that the approach is equally valid today.

'Impassioned Experience': notes on the art work of three young children in an American elementary school

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: 'Impassioned Experience': notes on the art work of three young children in an American elementary school
Author: MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 93-106
ABSTRACT The author presents three fragments from the art work of a class of American elementary school children to illustrate the imaginative power of children's thought and language.

From Teacher Aides to Teaching Assistants: how Plowden promoted parental participation in our primary schools

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: From Teacher Aides to Teaching Assistants: how Plowden promoted parental participation in our primary schools
Author: MIKE AYLEN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 107-114
ABSTRACT The author describes the changes which classroom assistants have seen over the past 40 years in terms of their job title and role. He argues that the Plowden Report's recommendations for greater responsibilities, better training opportunities and an increase in the number of teaching assistants in schools are at last being implemented.

Then and Now: foreign language teaching in schools from Plowden to the present

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Then and Now: foreign language teaching in schools from Plowden to the present
Author: LESLIE CARRICK
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 115-118
ABSTRACT The author looks at what the Plowden Report recommended concerning the introduction and teaching of foreign languages in primary schools, and assesses the extent to which, 40 years on, its suggestions have been implemented.

Reconceptualising Child-Centred Education: contemporary directions in policy, theory and practice in early childhood

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Reconceptualising Child-Centred Education: contemporary directions in policy, theory and practice in early childhood
Author: ELIZABETH WOOD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 119-134
ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to examine contemporary transformations in early childhood education, in light of developments in policy, theory and practice, and to chart significant changes and continuities over the last 40 years. The Plowden Report had a significant impact on early childhood education, because it reified developmental theories, and child-centred approaches to learning through discovery, exploration and play, and to planning the curriculum around children's needs and interests. However, these constructs proved to be problematic in theory and in practice, and provoked unprecedented policy interventions in curriculum and pedagogy. It is argued here that the concept of child-centred education has re-emerged within contemporary social policy initiatives that focus provision and multi-professional services on children and their families. Furthermore, theoretical advances have challenged the dominance of developmental theories, and integrate social, cultural and individual perspectives. Children are seen as competent social actors within a complex network of social and cultural influences. This places children and significant adults at the heart of contemporary educational processes.

Whatever Happened to Plowden's Middle Schools?

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Whatever Happened to Plowden's Middle Schools?
Author: MICHAEL TIDD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 135-140
ABSTRACT The author surveys the brief history of middle schools, from Plowden's recommendation of 12 as the age of transfer, to the present day, and asks if there are now arguments for a review of current arrangements.

Whatever Happened to EPAs? Part 2: Educational Priority Areas - 40 years on

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Whatever Happened to EPAs? Part 2: Educational Priority Areas - 40 years on
Author: GEORGE SMITH; TERESA SMITH; TOM SMITH
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 141-156
ABSTRACT Twenty years ago George Smith wrote 'Whatever Happened to Educational Priority Areas?' for the Plowden twentieth anniversary edition of the Oxford Review of Education. He is still working in the same field - a tribute, he says, not just to the impact of the NHS and medical sciences, but also to the power of the agenda and ideas set by the Plowden Committee as well as the intractable nature of many of the issues it addressed. In this article, the authors first sketch the origins and development of the Educational Priority Area idea in the 1960s and its subsequent decline and rise, through the development of area-based initiatives under the Labour governments since 1997. They then analyse the current position of the former EPA areas 40 years on, to demonstrate both continuity and change.

New Labour and Education: an evidence-based analysis

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: New Labour and Education: an evidence-based analysis
Author: MAURICE GALTON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 157-178
ABSTRACT This article looks at the evidence concerning performance and progress in the primary school over the lifetime of New Labour's tenure in government since 1997. It examines the claims made by New Labour that the Literacy and Numeracy Strategies have been an outstanding success and have changed the ways that teachers teach. On the evidence of the author's own research and that of other independent researchers this claim appears contentious. Attainment targets are still to be reached, pupils' attitudes to core subjects and liking of school have declined, and teacher stress has increased. Far from changing teaching so that it has become more 'interactive', whole-class teaching appears to have become more didactic and less challenging. The article concludes by arguing that the latest revisions of the Primary Strategy, while attempting to deal with some of the problems identified by the research, will also fail unless the continuing emphasis on accountability and testing is also reappraised.

Twenty Years at the TES - and not a word about phonics

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Twenty Years at the TES - and not a word about phonics
Author: DIANE HOFKINS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 179-186
ABSTRACT In her former role as primary editor at the Times Educational Supplement, the author met the great and the good of the educational world and monitored developments in schools, always with interest, often with concern, and - sometimes - with bemusement.

Where There is No Vision...

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:13:24 GMT

Title: Where There is No Vision...
Author: ROBIN ALEXANDER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2007 Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Pages: 187-200
ABSTRACT Plowden's 40th anniversary coincides with the launch of a new enquiry - the 2006-08 Primary Review - into the condition and future of primary education in England. This article outlines the scope, character and aspirations of the Primary Review, points up similarities and differences with Plowden, and draws some important lessons from the Plowden experience. Along the way, the article argues for Plowden to be rescued from the tangle of well-meaning interpretations and less well-meaning myths which have obscured its actual text; and stresses the need for a vision for primary education which provides a proper moral response to the fragile condition of the world which today's children will inherit.

Editorial. What it Means to Be a Teacher

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: Editorial. What it Means to Be a Teacher
Author: Michael Fielding
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 219-228
ABSTRACT Not available

Care in the Community

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: Care in the Community
Author: JONATHAN PAINE
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 229-234
ABSTRACT This text gives a brief insight into the potential which schools may have in their own communities. It gives details of ways in which the aims and objectives of other organisations in the community can be identified and linked to the aims and objectives in our schools. It's about a way of schools developing curriculum based projects which also involve working with their own communities in a way which benefits everyone.

Learning to Teach: on being a teacher

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: Learning to Teach: on being a teacher
Author: GILL MULLIS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 235-240
ABSTRACT This narrative is one teacher's attempt to represent a personal (political) and professional journey from becoming a student teacher to being a teacher, whilst always remaining a learner. The author offers her record of significant experiences, influences, debates and dilemmas, pausing to reflect on the principles which have informed her work with students and staff and to share her hopes for future learning and learning relationships.

Enabling Something Amazing to Happen: a less proscriptive approach to teaching

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: Enabling Something Amazing to Happen: a less proscriptive approach to teaching
Author: FRANCES HOLLOWAY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 241-246
ABSTRACT This article identifies some of the frustrations felt by a classroom practitioner as a result of the restrictions generated by current demands for accountability, and the limiting effect these can have on children's learning experiences. It goes on to consider the liberating impact of a more organic way of organising the curriculum, which allows teachers and students to collaborate in choosing the issues they will address together, and which encourages teachers to plan material which engages the hearts and minds of their classes.

A Kind of Twilight: how do teachers of English at Key Stage 3 respond to the requirement to prepare their students for SATs?

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: A Kind of Twilight: how do teachers of English at Key Stage 3 respond to the requirement to prepare their students for SATs?
Author: PATRICK YARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 247-256
ABSTRACT This article presents extracts from interviews with 14 teachers of English. It indicates some of the tensions which result for such teachers from having to prepare Year 9 students for the 'national' tests in English toward the end of Key Stage 3. These are high-stakes tests: they supply the means to compile school 'league tables' and the material by which authorities judge whether schools, departments and individual teachers have met given targets. For teachers, readying students for Standard Assessment Tasks (SATs) can entail confronting in a sustained way the extent and depth of the loss of professional autonomy. Teachers speak of the costs of complying with and adapting to the requirement while attempting to maintain their convictions.

The Reformer Knows Best: destroying the teacher's vocation

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: The Reformer Knows Best: destroying the teacher's vocation
Author: IVOR GOODSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 257-264
ABSTRACT Drawing on data from a major Spencer Foundation study, this article focuses on the effects of major restructuring initiatives in New York State on a gifted and utterly committed teacher. It challenges the now ubiquitous assumption that 'the reformer knows best' and reveals the gradual demise of an immensely gifted, dedicated teacher - a man whose mission to educate is compulsive, continuous and coherent - at the hands of 'reforms' which turn out to destroy the lives of students, teachers, and whole communities. Reforms which deny, ignore or otherwise disvalue the sense of mission of excellent teachers such as the person whose story is told in this article turn out to be counter-productive and exemplify the global warming of vocational purpose.

What Being a Teacher (Really) Means

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: What Being a Teacher (Really) Means
Author: CHRISTOPHER DAY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 265-274
ABSTRACT This article gives just a taster of a large-scale in-depth longitudinal research project, ‘Variations in Teachers’ Work, Lives and Effectiveness’, funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and conducted by a joint team from the University of Nottingham and the Institute of Education, London. The authors outline the approach which the research adopted, highlight the key findings and discuss some of the implications of this ground-breaking study, which established the dynamic, emotional nature of the professional life phases and identities of teachers. They suggest that what it really means to be a teacher is not only more complex than some current wisdom suggests, but that schools need to devote far more attention to their policies and strategies for making the best of their precious human resource.

In Praise of Diversity: why schools should seek gay and lesbian teachers, and why it's still difficult

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: In Praise of Diversity: why schools should seek gay and lesbian teachers, and why it's still difficult
Author: DAVID NIXON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 275-284
ABSTRACT This article begins from imagining what it would be like to target recruitment for teachers at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual (LGBT) people, and then examines in some detail two kinds of discrimination (or pathology) which makes life in the world of education problematic. It then turns to why, in spite of these difficulties, lesbian and gay teachers bring particular personal qualities to teaching, as well as inspiring necessary structural changes.

The Person Who Teaches? Narrative Identity and Teachers' Experience at an International Conference

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: The Person Who Teaches? Narrative Identity and Teachers' Experience at an International Conference
Author: SCHERTO GILL; JOHN PRYOR
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 285-296
ABSTRACT This article reflects on an approach designed to facilitate teachers' learning through responsive narratives. Analysing participants' interaction during a case study of an international conference, we highlight the significance of teachers engaging directly with each other's life stories and using their own voices to re-shape their professional-personal identity, especially with regard to renegotiating what it means to be a teacher.

'Training' is Just Not Good Enough

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: 'Training' is Just Not Good Enough
Author: TERRY WRIGLEY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 297-304
ABSTRACT This article reflects on different models of professional qualification for teaching, based on a comparison between initial teacher education (ITE) in Scotland and a narrower and more pragmatic view of 'teacher training' in England. It includes an analysis of the official requirements in both countries (the Standards), which exemplify different discourses; a comparison of quality assurance systems in both countries; and some illustrations of initiatives based on the principle of problem-based learning (PBL) as used in teacher education at the University of Edinburgh.

What Does it Mean to Be a Teacher? Three Tensions within Contemporary Teacher Professionalism Examined in Terms of Government Policy and the Knowledge Economy

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: What Does it Mean to Be a Teacher? Three Tensions within Contemporary Teacher Professionalism Examined in Terms of Government Policy and the Knowledge Economy
Author: SANDRA LEATON GRAY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 305-316
ABSTRACT This article debates three tensions within the contemporary teaching profession in Great Britain, in terms of education policy after the 1988 Education Reform Act. The first is between prospective and retrospective identities, as defined by Bernstein (1996/2000). The second is between teachers' expectations of professional status, and centralised and highly regulated school inspections. Finally, the article looks at vocation in the teaching profession, and how this comes into conflict with issues of self-interest amongst teachers. The article concludes by suggesting another tension that is evident throughout all three earlier strands of debate, between democratic professionalism (Whitty, 2002) and the post-1988 education landscape. The article closes by suggesting that a future education act in favour of a more humane education system may resolve this situation.

In Harmony with the Child: the Steiner teacher as co-leader in a pedagogical community

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: In Harmony with the Child: the Steiner teacher as co-leader in a pedagogical community
Author: PHILIP A. WOODS; GLENYS J. WOODS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 317-328
ABSTRACT This article provides a glimpse into what it means to be a Steiner teacher, drawing on research we have undertaken into Steiner schools in England. The distinctiveness of the philosophical context of Steiner teaching is highlighted, as well as aspects of curriculum, pedagogy and the collegial leadership of Steiner schools. Whilst not without its challenges, Steiner education offers an instructive and thought-provoking alternative to contemporary trends.

Production, Cure, or Translation? Rehumanizing Education and the Roles of Teacher and Student in US Schools and Universities

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: Production, Cure, or Translation? Rehumanizing Education and the Roles of Teacher and Student in US Schools and Universities
Author: ALISON COOK-SATHER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 329-336
ABSTRACT Concerned about the dehumanization of teachers and students throughout the history of schooling in the United States, the author critically analyzes two metaphors for education that have perennially shaped educational practices in the United States: education is production and education is a cure. Drawing on a set of commitments that could re-humanize education, she proposes an alternative - education is translation - and discusses what it would require of educators in schools, universities, and programs of teacher education to embrace this re-humanizing metaphor.

Collective Memory Loss: secondary teachers and school qualifications in New Zealand

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:20:52 GMT

Title: Collective Memory Loss: secondary teachers and school qualifications in New Zealand
Author: JUDIE ALISON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 3 Pages: 337-344
ABSTRACT This article draws on research among very experienced secondary teachers in New Zealand to show that a prolonged period of neo-liberal education policies can have a lasting effect on teachers' memories of their own radical past. Despite the existence in the 1970s and 1980s of an emerging consensus among secondary teachers that the traditional norm-referenced qualifications system needed radical reform, by 2004 a sample of teachers who had taught through all or most of that period failed to recall the profession's advocacy for change. Change, including qualifications reforms that the profession had been first to advocate, was typified by them as externally imposed. This poses a major challenge to those who seek to reclaim and revoice teaching's radical past.

Editorial

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:54:29 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Sheila Dainton
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 2 Pages: 115-120
ABSTRACT 'Our teachers and school staff are a national asset of priceless value.' So said the then Secretary of State for Education and Skills, Estelle Morris in a speech to the Social Market Foundation (DfES, 2001). During her time as a minister, Estelle Morris did her utmost to champion the teaching profession, even when she had difficult messages to convey. She continues to do so today. But surveying the educational landscape over the past decade or so, we could easily be forgiven for believing that not everyone shares Estelle Morris' conviction about what she called the 'talented and dedicated professionals' who teach children and young people in schools - and their crucial role in improving the education system.

We hardly need reminding of the devastating damage inflicted on teachers and schools by heavy-handed, counter-productive policies such as 'naming and shaming', or the public humiliation of 'failing' an Ofsted inspection or being 'bottom' of the school league tables. The wounds run deep and take a long time to heal. While events like the annual teaching awards highlight the sort of things that many thousands of teachers are doing day in day out in their classrooms, they are hardly an antidote to the almost daily battering that teachers continue to get in one newspaper or another, or indeed the current enthusiasm on the part of the Times Educational Supplement to give weekly blow-by-blow accounts of the latest disciplinary cases brought before the General Teaching Council. As the teaching profession knows to its cost, good news rarely hits the headlines. It is much easier to turn a blind eye to the dedication and commitment of the teaching profession and to focus instead on blaming teachers for just about everything - including the ills of society.

This issue of FORUM provides a welcome opportunity to put to one side the negative headlines and the endless stream of politically inspired short-term policy initiatives - and the resentment and frustration they can all too easily generate. It also provides a timely opportunity to shift the focus away from the Education and Inspections Bill and the reductionist vision of schooling this new legislation enshrines. Instead, we start where, for teachers, it matters most: in the classroom with children and young people.

Contributors to this issue remind us of what it means to be a teacher, and to be a member of what Robin Richardson (1990) has called 'that most daring of professions'. We are also reminded of the powerful ways in which teachers, both individually and collectively, can contribute not only to the flourishing of children and young people but, importantly, to the well-being and growth of the profession as a whole. 'Every Child Matters' is one of the most widely-used and powerful slogans that has permeated the education agenda in recent years. Captured in those three little words is a universal belief to which we can all sign up. But there is another side to the coin. If every child really is to matter, then we must surely find better and more enduring ways of publicly demonstrating that every teacher matters too. The relationship between these two sides of the coin needs to be symbiotic if the teaching profession is to thrive - and if children and young people are to flourish in school.

Our first contribution from Chris Watkins, When Teachers Reclaim Learning, puts the classroom centre stage and reminds us what happens when teachers and pupils focus on learning. As Chris wryly points out, learning is a 'minority interest in current times' and an activity 'which is rarely talked about'. Highlighting the inherent dangers of the current emphasis on strategies, packages and performance that has grown apace over the past decade or so, the article explores why it is essential that we hold firm to the idea that it is possible, and indeed in the longer term essential, for teachers to reclaim their central role in learning. Based as it is on the 'lived experience' of someone who has worked with integrity as an educator for over 35 years, and rooted in a critical and informed analysis of the dynamics between teachers and their environment, the article describes and analyses the obstacles that need to be addressed if classrooms are genuinely to become communities of learners, and maps out routes that are possible if teachers are to reclaim learning, and their sense of agency.

Teachers' lived experience, and their vital role in constructing knowledge, are central to the next article. It explores a different but complementary way in which teachers and their students can be empowered, this time by their involvement both in and with research. In a reflective and elegantly-argued contribution that draws on poetry, stories and 'thinking aloud', and that incisively connects the rational with the imaginative, Lesley Saunders reminds us that 'teaching and research are mutually supportive in a profound way'. Exploring the relationship between research and teaching, and arguing that each is both 'a demanding science and an imaginative art', Teachers' Engagement In and With Research: supporting integrity and creativity in teaching suggests that if research is to be used effectively in schools and classrooms, it is essential that the teacher-researcher is a part of that process, not merely at the receiving end, applying 'outcomes' and 'evidence' to classroom practice. As Lesley reminds us: 'The connection between research and teaching is intimate and integral rather than incidental or instrumental ... what the relationship enables is the possibility of teaching-and-learning which is genuinely transformative.'

Teachers' voices, and their views on and experiences of New Labour's education policies, play a central role in a research project that is examining the impact of recent policy initiatives on primary teachers' work. In The Impact of New Labour's Education Policy on Teachers and Teaching at Key Stage 2, Rosemary Webb & Graham Vulliamy argue that 'there has been more change in KS2 teachers' classroom practice over the last five years than in the previous twenty.' The article examines ways in which targets and tests have impacted upon primary classrooms and the relationship between teachers and pupils, and confirms the 'irresolvable tension' identified by Robin Alexander (2004) between the Government's standards agenda and the desire for schools to foster creativity and enjoyment. Although morale has been damaged and teacher confidence 'almost totally undermined' by the Government's approach to change, Rosemary and Graham point to ways in which teachers are regaining their professional confidence, in spite of the continuing 'all-pervasive and stifling culture of performativity'. However, they conclude that: 'for creativity, experimentation and innovation by teachers to flourish, there will need to be a fundamental change in the educational climate.'

In a thoughtful and cogently-argued contribution about the role of teachers in Children's Centres, Julian Grenier looks back on his experience as a junior-trained teacher who has moved into the world of nursery education, and speaks with great depth and insight about some of the individuals who challenged his thinking and who helped shape his understanding and professional practice as a nursery teacher. In Do We Need Teachers in Children's Centres? he highlights the unresolved tensions between 'childcare' and nursery education, and tracks developments that have led to the current situation where there is a danger that 'Early Years Professionals' will replace nursery teachers and where the emphasis will shift towards childcare and away from teaching and learning. He also points out that as 'pre-schools', the early years phase of education exists only by virtue of the stage it comes before, not in its own right. Arguing that an important role of the nursery teacher is to protect young children from more formal approaches to teaching and to guard against the growing 'schoolification' of early years practice, Julian makes a powerful case for nursery schools and children's centres to remain part of the mainstream educational scene in England.

The changing role of teachers in Ugandan schools, and the courageous ways in which women teachers have acted as role models for children and young people, is at the heart of David Rosenberg's Striding Forward: girls and women in Ugandan schools. In a contribution that is a testimony to the outstanding commitment and far-sightedness of a practising primary teacher, David condemns the current discourse that 'has been emptied of pedagogy and filled with business-based models of time management'. Shifting the perspective, he reminds us that bigger questions loom when we 'step back and think globally' and remember the many millions of primary-age children around the world who do not have access to school. Drawing on his work in Ugandan schools as part of a Global Teacher programme, and on interviews he conducted with children and teachers in 2001 and 2005, he offers a vivid and poignant account of how, in a relatively short period of time, the Ugandan Government's commitment to women's rights, coupled with the political will to implement Universal Primary Education, is having a visible impact on the women working within Uganda's education system and, importantly, on the aspirations of girls and young women.

In Working with Children, Working for Children: a review of Networked Learning Communities, Non Worrall & Christopher Noden provide a refreshing reminder that 'great things are possible' and that 'powerful learning' can happen when schools and teachers come together to innovate, experiment and collaborate. Building on the knowledge and expertise of individual teachers, the Networked Learning Communities programme was deliberately non-prescriptive, with groups of schools coming together voluntarily. Just as earlier in this volume, Rosemary Webb and Graham Vulliamy conclude that teachers are beginning to regain their professional confidence, so this article is an affirmation that in spite of the continuing emphasis on competition and league tables, and notwithstanding continuing concerns about increasing workloads, teachers and schools have found the time to develop creative and empowering ways of working together to the benefit of the children and young people they serve. And just as Chris Watkins explains what happens when teachers reclaim learning, so this contribution has much to say about what happens to pupils' learning when 'the collaborative impetus is built upon voluntarism and learning, and when enquiry, devised and directed by teachers, becomes the norm.'

The next article provides a salutary reminder of the damage, distortion and abuse that can happen when populist appeal to an assumed shared understanding of 'common sense' is picked up on and exploited by sections of the right-wing media. In Playgrounds, the Press and Preventing Racism Robin Richardson offers a compelling and critical account of the 'cruel simplicities' of the media fall-out that occurred when, earlier this year, Judge Jonathan Finestein dismissed as 'political correctness gone mad' a decision to bring criminal charges against a pupil for overtly racist behaviour. Recalling the history of the term 'political correctness', Robin goes on to describe the excellent work currently being undertaken by the DfES, in collaboration with teachers, to deal with racist bullying in schools. Those who have worked with and learned from Robin over the years will know of his unremitting commitment to support teachers, schools and the profession as a whole in the challenging but ultimately life-changing task of combating prejudice, discrimination and inequalities. It is reassuring to know that the DfES guidance has been informed by his knowledge, wisdom and insights.

The final three articles in this edition are written by people who, for many years, have worked with and for the teacher organisations. Meryl Thompson and John Bangs have, between them, worked for nearly forty years as senior officials in two of the major teacher unions, ATL and the NUT respectively. Rona Tutt was recently President of NAHT and continues to do much to support the organisation. Over the years, Meryl, John and Rona - all of whom are former teachers - have worked with total commitment, integrity and dedication to serve the profession well. They write here with a deep and critical understanding of the political background that has been, and continues to be, so powerful in shaping the teaching profession, and the school 'workforce' as a whole.

In a trenchantly argued contribution that beautifully demonstrates the intellectual rigour and analytical skills Meryl Thompson brings to her work, we gain new insights into the background to the 2003 National Agreement on Raising Standards and Tackling Workload, an Agreement that has been so powerfully influential in attempts to re-construct the concept of teacher professionalism and to which five of the six main teacher unions initially signed up. Following on from Patrick Yarker's deeply moving article about the personal and professional costs of workforce remodelling in an earlier edition of FORUM, Re-Modelling and De-Professionalisation takes a critical and detailed look at the 'perplexities' and 'ambivalence' of the Agreement itself, and at events that have stemmed from it, including a newly-constructed manifestation of the concept of 'social partnership'. Demonstrating that safeguards are not securely present in the provisions of the Agreement to prevent a diminution in the overall quality of teaching or of the status of teachers, Meryl argues that: 'So far, re-modelling offers no vision for a profession, except in relation to work/life balance and workload. As important as these may be ... they do very little to offer a respected and professional future for today's teachers.'

Meryl Thompson's warning about the price of social partnership is further explored by John Bangs in his contribution Social Partnership: the wider context. Readers of FORUM may know that the National Union of Teachers chose not be a signatory to the 2003 National Agreement, which has now evolved into the Social Partnership Agreement (SPA). At the time, and subsequently, many commentators applauded the NUT's decision to remain 'outside the tent' and thus retain a degree of independence and public criticality. Rather than dwell on the immediate issues that have impacted upon relationships between the teacher unions, and between the unions and the Westminster Government, John offers a highly objective, balanced and informative account of the ideologically contested concept of 'social partnership' as it has been constructed in the wider European context. He goes on to describe ways in which the SPA in England and Wales is unique in that, unlike social partnership as practised elsewhere in Europe, it has led to the exclusion from normal bi-lateral discussion of unions which have chosen not to be party to the SPA. The article concludes by calling for further analysis and debate about the relationships between trade unions, employers and governments.

We end this issue of FORUM on an optimistic note. In her inimitably positive and incisive way, and with a delightful touch of humour, Rona Tutt takes a critical and constructive look at the educational landscape. Noting the contradictions in New Labour's policy agenda, she opens her article Reconciling the Irreconcilable: coping with contradictory agendas by suggesting that the Government's 'hyperactivity' may be caused by 'meeting some internal target to produce a never-ending stream of ideas'. She goes on to point out that with all the grandiose talk about 'big pictures' and 'route maps', in reality, schools are being pulled in several directions at once, and that coherent and widely-supported aspects of current policy could be totally stymied by the 'whole panoply' of tests, targets and tables that determine so much of what goes on in schools. 'Is it healthy,' she asks 'to hothouse all pupils into passing tests and exams for which they may not be ready or cut out?' Ever the optimist, and with typical panache, Rona challenges the new Secretary of State to 'be his own person' by ending the 'overblown testing regime' and spending the money instead on personalised learning. 'What an opportunity for a new Secretary of State to make his mark!' she concludes.

Outcomes for Teachers?

Rona Tutt's contribution might just tempt us to reflect on the five outcomes, agreed upon by children and young people themselves, that are at the heart of the Every Child Matters agenda: being healthy; staying safe; enjoying and achieving; making a positive contribution; economic well-being.

Imagine, if you will, that at some stage in the not too distant future teachers too are invited to agree upon five outcomes that are essential if the teaching profession is to grow and flourish, and to serve children and young people, their families and the community even better than it does today. And might these outcomes just perhaps include: being healthy; staying safe (but also taking informed risks); enjoying and achieving; making a positive contribution ... They are certainly not the end of the story, but what better place to start.

SHEILA DAINTON was for many years education policy adviser for the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. Prior to that, she was ATL's primary education adviser. A former primary teacher and higher education administrator, she has written widely on education issues. Although 'retired', she retains an active interest in education issues. She is on a number of advisory bodies and is an advocate for Human Scale Education's Secondary Schools Project.

References

Alexander, R. (2004) Still No Pedagogy? Principle, Pragmatism and Compliance in Primary Education, Cambridge Journal of Education, 34(1), pp. 7-33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305764042000183106

Department for Education and Skills (2001) Professionalism and Trust: the future of teachers and teaching. A speech by the Rt Hon Estelle Morris MP to the Social Market Foundation. London: Department for Education and Skills.

Richardson, R. (1990) Daring to be a Teacher. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.

When Teachers Reclaim Learning

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:54:29 GMT

Title: When Teachers Reclaim Learning
Author: CHRIS WATKINS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 2 Pages: 121-130
ABSTRACT This account describes and analyses some of the processes which are important for teachers to maintain a creative role in promoting learning while in a climate of managerialism and performativity. It does so from the stance of someone who works with teachers and schools on a minority interest in current times - learning. Processes needed to combat some of the mechanical official discourses, and the disempowerment and demoralisation of teachers are outlined, as well as those which challenge the silence on learning. It amounts to a story of teachers reclaiming agency.

Teachers' Engagement in and with Research: supporting integrity and creativity in teaching

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:54:29 GMT

Title: Teachers' Engagement in and with Research: supporting integrity and creativity in teaching
Author: LESLEY SAUNDERS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 2 Pages: 131-144
ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between research and teaching, arguing that each of them is both a demanding science and an imaginative art, and that they both manifest the values and processes of learning, the open mind and the open heart, as it were. This is a rather different proposition from the notion that 'evidence' can be 'applied' to teaching in an unproblematic way. The author argues that 'what works' is not at all self-evident but needs to be held up to full ethical and intellectual discussion - which teacher-research is in a strong position to lead. The author goes on to suggest that teacher-research is about valuing the real-time, knowledge-in-action, context-specific understandings which people use to solve new problems. The article begins and ends with allusions to poetry, as one way of connecting the rational with the imaginative worlds that we inhabit.

The Impact of New Labour's Education Policy on Teachers and Teaching at Key Stage 2

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:54:29 GMT

Title: The Impact of New Labour's Education Policy on Teachers and Teaching at Key Stage 2
Author: ROSEMARY WEBB; GRAHAM VULLIAMY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 2 Pages: 145-158
ABSTRACT This article portrays Key Stage 2 primary school teachers' perspectives on, and experiences of, New Labour's education policies. Evidence is derived from fieldwork conducted in 2003-2005 in a sample of 50 schools throughout England, replicating a study conducted a decade previously in the same schools. It is suggested that there have been more changes in teaching methods in the last five years than in the previous two decades. However, the ability to motivate and develop children's learning has remained at the core of primary teacher professionalism. It determined teachers' condemnation or approval of government prescribed changes in classroom practice and led to reassessment of some of their professional values concerning desirable teaching methods.

Do We Need Teachers in Children's Centres?

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:54:29 GMT

Title: Do We Need Teachers in Children's Centres?
Author: JULIAN GRENIER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 2 Pages: 159-164
ABSTRACT This account considers the need for qualified teachers and headteachers in Children's Centres in England. It describes the ongoing decline in the importance of nursery education, and the concurrent expansion of childcare. The author argues that the best response to increasingly formal approaches in the early years is to maintain the role of the specialist nursery teacher and headteacher. The best tradition of the nursery school is the close observation and study of young children, leading to the development of an appropriate curriculum. That tradition is now in danger of extinction. Current government proposals for the early years are undermining the connections between the early years and the rest of the educational system; the author argues that teachers need to re-assert the importance of their position.

Striding Forward: girls and women in Ugandan schools

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:54:29 GMT

Title: Striding Forward: girls and women in Ugandan schools
Author: DAVID ROSENBERG
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 2 Pages: 165-170
ABSTRACT This article looks at the important role that teachers and headteachers can have as role models for children living with challenging circumstances. It focuses particularly on girls struggling against the odds to complete their education in Ugandan schools and improve their life chances. The commitment to women's rights espoused by Uganda's government is gradually undermining longstanding patriarchal norms. The implementation of universal primary education has forced these issues into the school arena. This article explores how the changing roles and increasing self-awareness of women working within Uganda's education system is impacting on girls' aspirations.

Working with Children, Working for Children: a review of Networked Learning Communities

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:54:29 GMT

Title: Working with Children, Working for Children: a review of Networked Learning Communities
Author: NON WORRALL; CHRISTOPHER NODEN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 2 Pages: 171-180
ABSTRACT When schools and teachers come together voluntarily to collaborate in learning communities there can be powerful and positive benefits to pupils' experiences of learning and their wider lives. This article summarises some of the learning from the four-year Networked Learning Communities programme, managed by the National College for School Leadership. 132 networks of schools have been supported to innovate, share and exchange practice with a predominant focus on learning. The article draws on a conceptual framework of learning designed by Professor Charles Desforges against which evidence from the NLC programme is measured. Networked Learning Communities are shown generally to have engaged in higher stages of learning experiences spread widely across the curriculum. There are also indications that the programme has had a positive impact on attainment for some pupils, has encouraged pupil voice and participation, and that the learning community model is highly effective for the delivery of aspects of the Every Child Matters agenda.

Playgrounds, the Press and Preventing Racism: a case study

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:54:29 GMT

Title: Playgrounds, the Press and Preventing Racism: a case study
Author: ROBIN RICHARDSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 2 Pages: 181-188
ABSTRACT This article begins by recalling a recent court case about bullying in a school playground and about how the case was trivialised in certain sections of the media, with much discourse of 'political correctness gone mad', and so forth, and of the need for good old-fashioned 'common sense'. Leaders of teachers' unions took a different view, rightly, but were denounced as 'hags and thought police'. The article then recalls the history of the term 'political correctness' and outlines the approaches to racist bullying that are presented at length in recently published DfES advice, and that are very different from the crude simplicities of typical media coverage.

Re-modelling as De-professionalisation

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:54:29 GMT

Title: Re-modelling as De-professionalisation
Author: MERYL THOMPSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 2 Pages: 189-200
ABSTRACT The article sets out the consequences of the British Government's remodelling agenda and its emphasis on less demarcation, for the professional status of teachers in England. It describes how the National Agreement on Raising Standards and Tackling Workload, reached between five of the six trade unions for teachers and headteachers paves the way for teaching assistants, without Qualified Teacher Status, to take over teaching activities and explores why teachers' trade unions have accepted a position which arguably reduces the professionalism of their members. It argues that remodelling has led to de-professionalisation and that this should be rectified by re-asserting the case that the formal knowledge of teachers justifies a distinct professional status.

Social Partnership: the wider context

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:54:29 GMT

Title: Social Partnership: the wider context
Author: JOHN BANGS
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 2 Pages: 201-208
ABSTRACT The Department for Education and Skills refers consistently to the Social Partnership Agreement (SPA) with unions representing teachers and support staff in education. Those inside the partnership will have their own perspectives on its operation. This article does not seek to describe, therefore, the day to day relationships of unions, Government and employers within the SPA nor is it about unions outside the agreement. Rather the article's purpose is to seek to place the idea of social partnership within a wider context. It examines the origins of the idea of social partnership, explores briefly the implications of the SPA and asks questions as a contribution to further debate.

Reconciling the Irreconcilable: coping with contradictory agendas

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:54:29 GMT

Title: Reconciling the Irreconcilable: coping with contradictory agendas
Author: RONA TUTT
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 2 Pages: 209-216
ABSTRACT This article discusses some of the Government's current agendas for schools that appear to be in direct conflict with each other. For example, the positive effects of Every Child Matters, personalised learning, inclusion and collaboration are seen as complementary, but their implementation is viewed as being held back by the current regime of 'tables, targets and tests'. As these different directions cannot be reconciled, the suggested solution is for schools to forge ahead with the agendas that will benefit all pupils, while making it clear to government that the current testing regime and all that it entails is counterproductive and should be abandoned without delay.

A Bad White Paper and a Bad Education Bill

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: A Bad White Paper and a Bad Education Bill
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 3-8
ABSTRACT This article argues that the provisions in the White Paper and the Education and Inspections Bill mean the end of a coherent system of state education, locally administered. The education proposals are clearly part of the Government's ongoing transformation of the public sector. It is argued that the Government's education agenda is all about selection, segregation, fragmentation and privatisation.

Diversity and Choice: the spin doctor's route to selection

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: Diversity and Choice: the spin doctor's route to selection
Author: MELISSA BENN
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 9-12
ABSTRACT This article, based on a talk given by the author at the Education Conference held at the Institute of Education, University of London, on 25 March, argues that we should be wary about the new centre-ground consensus on education and keep a broader vision in mind for the future of comprehensive education in the United Kingdom.

Fault Lines in New Labour's Education Project: points for intervention and resistance

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: Fault Lines in New Labour's Education Project: points for intervention and resistance
Author: JANE COLES
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 13-22
ABSTRACT This article argues that New Labour's third term education policies are riddled with internal contradictions. The author explores key tension points and suggests that fractures might be opened up where the government is most vulnerable to critical scrutiny and interventions by grassroots resistance.

What Works: real research or a cherry picker's paradise?

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: What Works: real research or a cherry picker's paradise?
Author: SHEILA DAINTON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 23-32
ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to consider the evidence base for some of the proposals in the Education White Paper, Higher Standards: better schools for all. In particular, the article challenges the assertion by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills that the White Paper is based on knowledge of 'what works'. Using the issue of 'parent power' as an example, the main argument of the article is that many of the proposals in the White Paper are based on assertion and either ignore or contradict existing evidence. Drawing on evidence submitted to the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee's inquiry into the White Paper, the article offers a critique of aspects of the White Paper and argues that in considering how best to raise standards in schools, policy making could be better informed by utilising the knowledge and experience of professional practitioners.

'The Grand March' or 'Beating the Retreat'?

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: 'The Grand March' or 'Beating the Retreat'?
Author: JOHN DUNFORD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 33-40
ABSTRACT This article argues that many Conservative and Labour backbenchers have reacted to the Downing Street spin on the 2005 Education White Paper rather than to the White Paper itself. But it is acknowledged that an increase in the variety of secondary schools can lead to division, discrimination and a disturbing emphasis on hierarchy.

Equality or Utilitarianism? Developing Inclusive Education a contradiction in terms: the Education and Inspections Bill 2006

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: Equality or Utilitarianism? Developing Inclusive Education a contradiction in terms: the Education and Inspections Bill 2006
Author: RICHARD RIESER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 41-48
ABSTRACT This article argues that the White Paper's attack on the role of local authorities will have a detrimental effect on the promotion of inclusive education.

Another Day, Another White Paper

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: Another Day, Another White Paper
Author: SALLY TOMLINSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 49-54
ABSTRACT This article argues that the proposals in the 2005 White Paper can be largely explained by a New Labour emphasis on 'meritocracy' merging with a right-wing belief in education as a means of creating an hierarchical society.

CONFERENCE REPORT. A Good Local School for Every Child: will the Education Bill deliver?

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: CONFERENCE REPORT. A Good Local School for Every Child: will the Education Bill deliver?
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 55-60
ABSTRACT Not available

A Week Sketching Fruit: Year 8 students at work with a visual artist

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: A Week Sketching Fruit: Year 8 students at work with a visual artist
Author: PATRICK YARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 61-68
ABSTRACT The content of many school lessons is increasingly determined by the requirement to 'cover' what is laid down in England's National Curriculum. In this situation transmission or 'delivery' models of teaching all too often become the norm. This article records aspects of a very different kind of teaching and learning, and presents some responses to it from both students and teachers.

The Future of English

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: The Future of English
Author: BETHAN MARSHALL
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 69-78
ABSTRACT This article reviews some of the documents that have recently been published on the teaching of English, and argues that the 2006 QCA Functional Skills Draft has important implications for the future of an 'entitlement' curriculum.

Drama and Language in the Classroom

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: Drama and Language in the Classroom
Author: STUART BUTTON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 79-84
ABSTRACT This article presents an example of a project designed to get children of different ages working together and working for each other. The project relied quite heavily on children creating a dramatic context and the author shows how the dramatic element has the potential to affect their learning in positive ways. The provision of a shared make-believe common context is at the heart of children's symbolic play and provides for purposeful learning and specific language opportunities. As well as looking at the project, the article stresses the importance of appreciating the links between symbolic play and drama and the ways in which drama reaches beyond the experience of children's play.

A Brief History of British 'Race' Politics and the Settlement of the Maisuria Family

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: A Brief History of British 'Race' Politics and the Settlement of the Maisuria Family
Author: ALPESH MAISURIA
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 95-101
ABSTRACT This article traces 'race' policy and practice in Britain and flags up seminal moments from the 1960s onwards. Although settlement of Asian, Black and other minority ethnic immigrants can be traced back to 1948 with the arrival of the SS Empire Windrush from the Caribbean, it is in the 1960s that 'race' became most visible in parliamentary politics. The article tackles each decade individually, highlighting events and laws that have shaped and defined macro policy and also the micro experiences of the Maisuria family. It is argued that it is of huge importance to establish a connection between macro politics and micro struggles in a liberal democracy to see how the policy of the state links with lived lives.

Fresh Start: a model for success and sustainable change

Thu, 18 May 2006 12:02:32 GMT

Title: Fresh Start: a model for success and sustainable change
Author: SUSAN MATTHEWS; FRANCIA KINCHINGTON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2006 Volume: 48 Issue: 1 Pages: 102-112
ABSTRACT This article examines the rationale and debate of the 'Fresh Start' schools policy introduced by the New Labour Government in 1997 as a vehicle for improvement in schools that historically had been classified as 'failing'. Underpinning the policy is the assumption that Fresh Start can act as a catalytic agent of positive change to performance, school cultures and the school community. Dr Matthews' involvement with the case study primary school began when she became a governor four months after the school received its new Fresh Start status in May 2000.

Annabelle Dixon, 1940-2005

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Annabelle Dixon, 1940-2005
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 43-50
ABSTRACT Not available

Space, Schools and the Younger Child

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Space, Schools and the Younger Child
Author: ANNABELLE DIXON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 51-60
ABSTRACT This article first appeared in FORUM, Volume 46, Number 1, 2004, pp.19-23, and appears now as a tribute to the late Annabelle Dixon. In this article Annabelle looks at the nature, potential and changing character of the spaces provided for younger children in present day schools from the viewpoint of an Early Years teacher. In typically elegant and insightful fashion she asks, 'Do we, should we, give enough consideration to those spaces required by the development of their imagination, for instance?' before going on to explore the issue of space in all its interpersonal, geographical and curricular richness.

EDITORIAL. Putting Hands Around the Flame: reclaiming the radical tradition in state education

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: EDITORIAL. Putting Hands Around the Flame: reclaiming the radical tradition in state education
Author: Michael Fielding
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 61-70
ABSTRACT Against the Claustrophobia of Contemporary Culture

The culture in which we live is perhaps the most claustrophobic that has ever existed; in the culture of globalisation ... there is no glimpse of an elsewhere, of an otherwise. ... The first step towards building an alternative world has to be a refusal of the world picture implanted in our minds ... Another space is vitally necessary. (Berger, 2002, p. 214)

This Special Double Issue of FORUM is a collective refusal to accept contemporary educational presumptions as they exist in England in 2005. It takes comfort from John Berger's re-assurance that 'in this resistance is hope. A hope that we are desperately trying to recognise' (Berger, 2002, p. 214) and takes seriously his suggestions that 'the act of resistance means not only refusing to accept the absurdity of the world picture offered us, but denouncing it' (ibid, p. 214). Contributors to this Special Double Issue do, indeed, denounce the absurdities, injustices and daily inhumanity of much that makes up the explicit norms and, more importantly, the underlying assumptions of contemporary state schooling in England. Both their denunciation and their advocacy connect to a further motif of Berger's fine collection of essays, namely the importance of continuities. His remarks on the claustrophobia of contemporary culture which open this Editorial come from that part of his stirring 'Against the Great Defeat of the World' in which he reflects on the work of Hieronymus Bosch. Our capacity to interrogate the present with any degree of wisdom or any likelihood of creating a more fulfilling future rests significantly on our knowledge and engagement with the past and with the establishment of continuities that contemporary culture denies. These presumptions persist most often as a susurrus beneath the surface of much of what Berger has to say. Occasionally they are more openly articulated, as in his engagement with Bosch. Occasionally, as in his essay on 'Giorgio Morandi', we encounter them as a vibrant sense of grounded hope. 'Traces', says Berger, 'are not only what is left when something has gone, they can also be marks for a project, of something to come.' (ibid, p. 144)

In 'Reclaiming the Radical Tradition in State Education' we are engaging with 'traces' in Berger's double sense. We do so because, as with Russell Jacoby, we fear that our 'society remembers less and less faster and faster. The sign of the times is thought that has succumbed to fashion; it scorns the past as antiquated while touting the present as the best' (Jacoby, 1977, p. 1). This is not just a matter of intellectual regret: it has more far-reaching consequences for, as Russell Jacoby again so eloquently and so terrifyingly reminds us, 'society has lost its memory, and with it, its mind. The inability or refusal to think back takes its toll in the inability to think' (Jacoby, 1997, pp. 3-4). It seems to me that we now need to do two things: firstly, we must reclaim and revoice narratives of our radical past which sustained those who fought for an education worthy of the name; secondly, we must create new spaces and new opportunities where teachers' work can not only connect with their radical heritage, but articulate their own stories and weave their own narratives into the fabric of the future.

With regard to the first of these imperatives - the necessity of reclaiming and revoicing narratives of our radical past - many of the authors of the Special Issue remind us how important this is. Thus, contrary to current government misinformation, Mary Jane Drummond remind us that 'in the years before the Education Reform Act of 1988, by and large, teachers did their own thinking, turning to a variety of sources to enrich their understanding and help them make a case for their principled pedagogical decisions'. Sheila Dainton concurs and exposes the intellectual waywardness of Michael Barber's, now sadly well known, depiction of the 1970s as a period of 'uninformed professionalism', a portrayal that is not only 'deeply hurtful, but much more important, historically inaccurate'.

With regard to the second imperative - the creation of new spaces and opportunities for teachers to review and re-energise the radical state tradition in England - journals like FORUM, professional forums like the Socialist Education Association, university units like the Centre for Educational Innovation at the University of Sussex, national networks like Human Scale Education, must find new ways of engaging with school staff who have been robbed of a language capable of voicing their encounter with the world and their desire to change it, a language rendered inarticulate under what Tony Booth later in this Special Issue describes as 'the shadow of managerialist absurdity'.

In sum, we need to develop counter-narratives that reconnect to our radical heritage. We need to retell narratives that transcend what Shelia Dainton so beautifully calls 'the wearisome appeal to Middle England'. We need to name different realities. We need, with the narrator of William Morris's Dream of John Ball, to reflect on

How men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name. (Morris, 1968 [1886/87], p. 53)

We need, in the spirit of John Berger, to put our hands around the flames of our own stories to protect them (Berger, 2005), to help us see the presence of possibility in the gloom of troubled times.

Imagination, Freedom and the Necessity of Respect

In addition to the tributes to Annabelle Dixon's life and work we open our Special Issue by republishing her Space, Schools and the Younger Child in which she asks some searching questions about whether we give enough consideration to the actual nature of the different kinds of 'spaces' that children need, inhabit and experience in their school lives. While these include physical, geographical and interpersonal spaces, they are also include inner spaces in which we can nurture and extend their imaginations. Echoing concerns taken up later in this Special Issue by her friend Mary Jane Drummond, Annabelle warns us that too often what should be expressive, exploratory and evanescent in young children is rendered mute, myopic and moribund by a curriculum that is 'flawed, shallow and deeply unserious'.

The power and importance of the imagination is exemplified in all its subtlety and beauty by Michael Armstrong's Teaching Imagination. Michael is one of the most profound and eloquent advocates of the radical progressive tradition in this country. Here he brings us back to fundamentals: to the transformative power of imagination that all young people exercise; to the necessity of acknowledging the respect it invites and the attentiveness it demands of us. In a sensitive and highly-attuned response to the moving work of a 14 year old boy Michael exemplifies all that his advocacy names: imaginative entry into the work of the child; response to that work with critical sympathy; and suggested lines of future enquiry and imaginative engagement.

Mary Jane Drummond's Professional Amnesia: a suitable case for treatment testifies, again with great beauty and power, not just to the necessities, but to the joys of imagination, respect and attentiveness in the substance and the manner of what she has to say. She reminds us through the work of Edmund Holmes, Susan Isaacs, Ruth Griffiths and others that, in Ruth Griffiths' words, children's 'most urgent need is freedom to grow and think'. This is in large part also true of adults who teach them and they are ill-served by contemporary policy assumptions that teachers know nothing and thus need to be told. In Mary Jane's view, we did and do know something, indeed some very important things, and 'we did not and do not need so much telling. The time is ripe for some critical remembering.'

Radical Approaches to 21st Century Primary and Secondary Schooling

Two of our next three contributions come from serving headteachers. The first, Raising Standards: what do we really want? by Alison Peacock, headteacher of the Wroxham School, a one-form entry primary school in Hertfordshire, suggests that 'schools have become so busy trying to do as they are told by a range of masters that they have forgotten to respond from the heart'. Inspired in part by the life and work of Annabelle Dixon whom we honour in this Special Issue, Alison argues that 'we need to rekindle joy amongst teachers in order that we can nurture and enhance the natural love of life and learning of our children'. The results speak for themselves.

Mike Davies is Principal of Bishops Park College, Clacton, arguably the most radical secondary school in England at the present time. In his Less is More: the move to person-centred, human scale education he reminds us of the legacy of the 1970s and 1980s that laid the spiritual and practical foundations of the work of the college before describing how the principles and precepts of the radical tradition in state education can not only be continued into the 21st century, but grounded in new ways which express 'a move to educate on a human scale, to end the isolation of the teacher and the taught, and bring a sense of community and belonging as the foundation for dignity, challenge and excellence'.

In his Alex Bloom, Pioneer of Radical State Education Michael Fielding argues that in this once internationally renowned headteacher of a secondary modern school in the East End of London we have someone whose work in the first decade after the Second World war anticipates and still outreaches even the most creative periods of the comprehensive movement that were to follow. Here is someone whose understanding and practice of 'personalised learning' was immensely more profound and more inspiring than anything to emerge thus far from the DfES. Here is someone whose commitment to 'student voice' is a humbling reminder of how far we have yet to go in even approximating to what he achieved. We have much to learn from him.

Taking Inclusion Seriously: consequences for setting, subjects and values in action

The three articles by Jo Boaler, Ivor Goodson and Tony Booth explore three aspects of the radical state tradition that are fundamental to the integrity of the movement. These have to do with our commitment to a pedagogy that is not only creative and engaging, but also socially just; a commitment to a curriculum framework and subject content that rejects the elitism of the 1904 Curriculum Regulations which still shape what we are required to do in 2005; and a commitment to a form of inclusive education which is essentially about, in Tony Booth's words, 'new ways of living together'.

Jo Boaler's The 'Psychological Prisons' From Which They Never Escaped: the role of ability grouping in reproducing social class inequalities is in many respects a landmark article. Her research suggests that setting significantly depressed and obstructed the life chances of students in her study, thereby creating the 'psychological prisons' of her title. Conversely, students taught in mixed ability arrangements in a progressive school in one of the poorest areas of the country helped those young people to become upwardly mobile. She concludes her article with the devastating question:

If the Labour Party really cares about promoting 'social justice' then an important part of their agenda for the future must be to learn about equitable and effective grouping policies that promote high achievement for all and reduce rather than reproduce social inequalities.

Issues of social equality lie at the heart of Ivor Goodson's The Exclusive Pursuit of Social Inclusion which opens with a reminder that 'New Labour policies have in fact worked not to broaden social inclusion, but deepen social exclusion'. Part of the reason why this is so has to do with the fact that 'many of the traditional building blocks of schooling are themselves devices for social exclusion, not inclusion', in particular the dominance of the curriculum by traditional school subjects which are 'exclusionary devices', as he compellingly illustrates with reference to the history of science as a school subject.

Tony Booth's Keeping the Future Alive: putting inclusive values into action is a passionate affirmation of his own commitments to and experience of inclusion 'as a principled approach to education and society, as a task of putting particular values into action'. The article explores some of the difficulties and joys of working in this way and ends with an acknowledgement that despite the obstacles and absurdities of managerialism that frustrate our work, 'principled action is its own reward. The painstaking task of linking inclusive values to action, keeps alive a resource for acting otherwise'.

Reclaiming Teacher Professionalism

The next four articles explore different aspects of contemporary teacher professionalism in its struggles to retain its collective memory, its voice and, consequently, its educational integrity as we move into the 21st century. Sheila Dainton opens her Reclaiming Teacher Voices with the observation that 'there is surely something deeply and profoundly worrying about a profession that could well be in danger of forgetting its collective history and, perhaps worse still, of losing its collective voice - and the voices of individual teachers'. Her devastating demolition of Michael Barber's four-fold matrix of late 20th century professionalism is one of the many joys of this Special Issue of FORUM. Having offered a quite different version of recent history the article concludes with three tentative suggestions of ways in which the teaching profession might begin to reclaim its voice.

As a very gifted, utterly committed teacher of many years experience in secondary comprehensive schools Patrick Yarker's On Not Being a Teacher: the professional and personal costs of Workforce Remodelling makes compelling and disturbing reading. This is a article of great significance and sadness. In it we confront the dilemmas of all those who try to live out the unity of values and action Tony Booth advocated earlier. 'How far', asks Patrick Yarker, 'is it proper for a teacher to stay silent, or be silenced and to disregard their personal views, in the implementation of education policy?' Finally, the tensions generated in teachers by having to implement in the classroom what they cannot agree with - the cumulative deluge of 'delivery', SATs, 'levels', 'gifted and talented', and the effective abandonment of QTS - takes its toll.

The sustained attack over many years on teacher professionalism which contributed to Patrick Yarker's resignation is clearly mapped out in Derek Gillard's Rescuing Teacher Professionalism. Like Shelia Dainton, he too makes a number of suggestions for change and ends his article with the salutary reminder to governments offered by Lester Smith nearly 50 years ago: 'You cannot have it both ways - the right to interfere and the right to expect initiative and imaginative leadership'.

The question of leadership and its relation to the independence of thought and judgement that lies at the heart of any legitimate notion of professionalism is explored in a variety of ways in Helen Gunter's Putting Education Back into Leadership. What comes through particularly strongly is the notion that educational leadership must be concerned, not just with efficiency and effectiveness and with 'measurable productivity', but also with 'challenging the power structures and cultures that are inherited and can act as barriers to democratic development', or, as she puts it in her concluding sentence, 'the processes of learning within the public domain'.

Schools, Community and Democracy

The next two articles explore different aspects of schools and their relations with their communities. In the first of these, Illuminating Schools and Communities, David Limond warns us against what for many seems a positive development in recentring the wholeness and integrity of the child as a person in the ECM (Every Child Matters) legislation. Drawing on recent Scottish research and the history of the English community college tradition, David Limond argues, firstly, that what seems to be benign more often than not turns out to be an instrument of control. Secondly, he suggests that in their failure to understand the richness and importance of their own distinctive traditions and histories those who framed the legislation have by-passed alternative models and practices that hold out more hope of a democratic commitment to authentic learning.

David Limond's warning against a 'medicalised surveillance' model of community engagement is echoed in Pat Thomson's Who's Afraid of Saul Alinsky? Radical Traditions in Community Organising. The work of Saul Alinsky, often described as the 'father' of community organising, still has much to teach us. Those North American colleagues inspired by his work argue that 'educational schemes must shift away from patronising and paternalistic notions of needy communities that require co-ordinated services - as in the case of the Comer full service schools model - designed and delivered by professionals'. We need to reclaim our own radical traditions, resist the Blairite manufacture of civil society and remember, in Alinsky's words, that 'The central principle of all our organisational efforts is self-determination ... We're not there to lead, but to help and teach'.

Contemporary Policies, Radical Critiques

The next three articles explore in very different ways how we might understand and respond to current government policies from the standpoint of the radical state tradition. Clyde Chitty's The Challenges Facing Comprehensive Schools honours the work of one of the early comprehensive pioneers before taking a close look at some more recent developments, such as Tim Brighouse's advocacy of a collegiate framework now apparently championed by central government, and returns to some of the residual topics of debate such as the neighbourhood comprehensive principle and curriculum reform. What comes over particularly from the article is, firstly, the truth of Roy Hattersley's withering remark that 'the government has no philosophic compass with which to guide its policies' and, secondly, Clyde Chitty's own rich sense of what some of the magnetic orientations of that compass should be.

For Francis Beckett, the magnetic poles of New Labour's third term education team confirm earlier apprehensions about an apparent co-incidence with the guiding principles of neo-liberalism. In his On the Comfort of the Wilderness: the significance of Lord Andrew Adonis, de facto Secretary of State for Education Tony Blair's strategic appointment of Lord Andrew Adonis in Education prompts a retreat to the wilderness. In any event, it seems likely that campaign groups, such as 'Comprehensive Futures' to which Francis Becket belongs, will make the difficult and depressing decision to uncouple themselves from what, as he ironically reminds us is, 'the only major political party that believes (in comprehensive education)'.

Stephen Ball's Radical Policies, Progressive Modernisation and Deepening Democracy: the Academies programme in action engages with one of the most contentious of New Labour's third term dynamics, namely the Academies programme. Locating the programme within the wider context of 'progressive modernisation', Stephen Ball raises important issues, not just about the Academies and their very serious dangers and shortcomings, but also about 'the new localism' which turns out to be neither local nor empowering of those who can legitimately claim to be local. Instead we have the glitz of 'fast policy' imposing 'elite solutions' on local communities.

Learning from Europe

We end our Special Issue by looking outward, not across the Atlantic, but to radical traditions in mainland Europe which seem to retain greater proximity to contemporary governments than we have thus far managed to achieve in England. Terry Wrigley's Another School is Possible: learning from Europe offers inspiration and hope from Scandinavia and particularly from the Laboratory School in Bielefeld, Germany. It is interesting and helpful to note that the 'common feature of these approaches are that they provide a secure but flexible structure for teachers and learners, alongside scope and encouragement for choice and initiative within a common theme and activity,' something that, for instance, Alex Bloom (the subject of Michael Fielding's article) would have recognised fifty years ago and Mike Davies in his More is Less would recognise and applaud today.

The Urgent Solidarities of Humankind

We are living at a significant moment, not just in the history of education in England, but in the wider context of western culture and its engagement with other nations and traditions across the world. For the two authors whose work inspires and speaks through this prefatory contribution to this Special Issue of FORUM this evinces a sense of profound apprehension and insistent hope.

For John Berger, who underscores what he sees as the urgency of his book, The Shape of a Pocket, from which these extracts are taken, the apprehension is palpable. 'There are,' he says, 'historical periods when madness appears to be what it is: a rare and abnormal affliction. There are other periods - like the one we have just entered - when madness appears to be typical' (Berger, 2002, p. 177). For Russell Jacoby, writing the revised introduction to his book, Social Amnesia, originally published twenty years earlier, the observation that 'the wholesale rejection of the past as past bespeaks the marketing mentality, the assumption that today is necessarily better than yesterday' (Jacoby, 1997, p. 58) leads him to suggest that 'Even if newer cars, telephones, and x-ray machines are superior to older ones, new philosophers, psychologists, or literary critics may not be' (ibid). Indeed, it may well be that 'intelligence is dwindling in advanced industrial society. Undoubtedly we have more information and data but we may understand less and less' (ibid).

Whilst Berger and Jacoby articulate deep disquiet with disturbing eloquence they match their unease with an equally articulate hope. Thus, for Russell Jacoby his book remains 'less about political than intellectual resistance, thinking against the grain - an endeavour that remains as urgent as ever' (Jacoby, 1997, p. 50). John Berger's book is itself an act of resistance, rejecting the madness he exposes with such delicate and terrifying insight; it is a magnificent denunciation and 'when hell is denounced from within it ceases to be hell' (Berger, 2002, p. 215).

I end with an extract from the Argentinean poet Juan Gelman's Selected Poems Unthinkable Tenderness, cited more than once in Berger's book. Here are the last two stanzas of the poem 'They Wait':

death itself has come with its documentation /

we're going to take up again

the struggle / again we're going to begin

again we're going to begin all of us

against the great defeat of the world /

little compañeros who never end / or

who burn like fire in the memory

again / and again / and again

(Gelman, 1997, p. 45)

Those of us in the radical tradition of state education are 'little compañeros ... who burn like fire'. Others will see our fire, others will warm themselves by it as we warm each other, and together we will light beacons of hope again in England. We will see other fires in Wales, in Scotland, in Ireland, in Europe, in North America, in Australasia, and in other places and countries across our small planet: a radical tradition worthy of its name invites and offers the urgent solidarities of humankind.

Professor Michael Fielding

Centre for Educational Innovation, School of Education, The Sussex Institute, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QQ, United Kingdom m.fielding@sussex.ac.uk

References

Berger, J. (2002) The Shape of a Pocket. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Berger, J. (2005) Interview on Radio 3 'Nightwaves', 25 March.

Gelman, J. (1997) Unthinkable Tenderness: selected poems. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Jacoby, R. (1977) Social Amnesia: a critique of conformist psychology from Adler to Laing. Hassocks: Harvester Press.

Jacoby, R. (1997) Revisiting 'Social Amnesia', Society, 35(1), pp. 58-60 [This article is the revised preface to the 1996 edition of Social Amnesia]

Morris, W. (1968)[1886/87] Three Works by William Morris. London: Lawrence& Wishart.

Teaching Imagination

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Teaching Imagination
Author: MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 71-82
ABSTRACT 'It is imagination, above all, that drives learning forward'. With the eloquence and insight always associated with his work Michael Armstrong considers how to recognise children's imaginative achievement: how to observe it, interpret it, value it and promote it. The child's exemplification of the power of the imagination demands our respect, but more explicitly our attention. It is this closeness of attention that marks out the act of interpretation as the polar opposite to standard assessment procedures that dominate educational practice on both sides of the Atlantic at the present moment. There could not be a better moment to reassert the primacy of the imagination in the process of learning and the value of interpretation in the business of teaching.

Professional Amnesia: a suitable case for treatment

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Professional Amnesia: a suitable case for treatment
Author: MARY JANE DRUMMOND
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 83-90
ABSTRACT Early Years educators have always had a particularly secure feel for what lies at the heart of vibrant education, for 'a principled understanding of learning'. Here Mary Jane Drummond reminds the reader, not only that professional knowledge exists outside ring binders, but that, prior to their emergence, we did know some very important things we would do well to return to. In reconnecting to the richness and depth of twentieth-century pioneers she reminds the reader how things might yet be. All the writers she cites emphasise that children's 'most urgent need is freedom to grow and think,' an insight that it as is true for teachers as it is for children: the time is ripe for some critical remembering.

Raising Standards: what do we really want?

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Raising Standards: what do we really want?
Author: ALISON PEACOCK
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 91-96
ABSTRACT When taking up her headship of a one-form entry primary school in 'special measures' Alison Peacock's approach was to begin to rekindle joy amongst teachers in order to nurture and enhance the natural love of life and learning in children. She refused to label children by ability, preferring to value all individuals and celebrate success. Applying this to staff as well as to children, gradually the spark and the joy returned. In this now very successful school two points emerge particularly strongly. Firstly, an environment of discovery, team work and professional trust were more effective than current obsessions with rigorous lesson observation and targets. Secondly, through radical whole school student voice work a system of school democracy developed that had 'a revolutionary effect on our school'.

Less is More: the move to person-centred, human scale education

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Less is More: the move to person-centred, human scale education
Author: MIKE DAVIES
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 97-118
ABSTRACT Bishops Park College, Clacton, is arguably the most important single educational innovation at secondary school level the United Kingdom has seen for 20 years. Here the Principal, Mike Davies, begins by reflecting on ways in which forgotten pioneers can help us develop a more profound approach to truly 'personalised' learning, before providing an inspirational and passionate account of the first English school designed and built to house a 'schools-within-schools' approach to learning. At Bishops Park such an approach is based on the belief that we must start with relationships that enable us to know and shape each other's learning in depth. For this to happen we need continuities of time, place, and persons and a wide-ranging, extensively negotiated curriculum.

Alex Bloom, Pioneer of Radical State Education

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Alex Bloom, Pioneer of Radical State Education
Author: MICHAEL FIELDING
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 119-134
ABSTRACT Alex Bloom is one of the greatest figures of radical state education in England. His approach to ‘personalised learning’ and the development of a negotiated curriculum was immeasurably more profound and more inspiring than anything to emerge thus far from the current DfES. His approach to student voice was much more radical than anything presently emerging from the current new wave of activity. His school, St George-in-the-East, a secondary modern school in Stepney in the East End of London, utterly rejected regimentation, corporal punishment (still the norm at the time) and the use of marks, prizes and competition. On the fiftieth anniversary of his death it is fitting to return to learn again from his still unfulfilled legacy.

The 'Psychological Prisons' from which They Never Escaped: the role of ability grouping in reproducing social class inequalities

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: The 'Psychological Prisons' from which They Never Escaped: the role of ability grouping in reproducing social class inequalities
Author: JO BOALER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 135-144
ABSTRACT In stark contrast to the recommendations of the current White Paper, Jo Boaler's recent research suggests that the radical progressive state school commitment to mixed ability teaching has, in the case of this landmark study, led to better results and better life-chances than its more traditional counterpart whose ability grouping practices created, in the words of one ex-pupil, 'psychological prisons' that 'break ambition' and 'almost formally label kids as stupid'. If ability grouping reproduces social class inequalities any political party that really cares about social justice must look again at the norms of ability segregation that blights so much of contemporary practice. In their stead we need equitable and effective grouping polices that promote high achievement for all.

The Exclusive Pursuit of Social Inclusion

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: The Exclusive Pursuit of Social Inclusion
Author: IVOR GOODSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 145-150
ABSTRACT Despite its best intentions, social exclusion has grown rather than diminished under New Labour's education policies. In order to understand this Ivor Goodson argues that we need to engage with the history of the formal curriculum and the long and continuing fight over what counts as proper knowledge. Taking science and environmental science as his examples he reveals a shameful story of intellectual and social prejudice that remains immovably with us today. Commitment to social inclusion that ignores the exclusionary nature of the curriculum we are required to teach will, inevitably and ironically, defeat attempts to undertake deep reform of a profoundly unjust and in some respects intellectually dishonest system of education.

Keeping the Future Alive: putting inclusive values into action

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Keeping the Future Alive: putting inclusive values into action
Author: TONY BOOTH
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 151-158
ABSTRACT Tony Booth has fought for inclusive education all his life, arguing that the labelling of children as 'having special educational needs' serves to devalue a group and obscure their diversity. It encourages educational difficulties to be seen primarily in terms of the deficiencies of children thus deflecting attention away from the contextual barriers to learning. In reflecting on the struggle for a democratic, participatory practice that values all students and staff equally he re-affirms not only the central importance of socialist values, but also of the language and legacy of the radical progressive tradition that invites us, once again, to understand the importance of 'honesty' and 'joy' as they 'blink hesitantly under the shadow of managerialist absurdities'.

Reclaiming Teachers' Voices

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Reclaiming Teachers' Voices
Author: SHEILA DAINTON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 159-168
ABSTRACT In advocating the importance of reclaiming teachers' voices Sheila Dainton argues, not only that the DfES myth of 1970s 'uninformed professionalism' is historically inaccurate and embarrassingly oxymoronic, she also observes that ''delivering' someone else's thoughts, ideas, strategies and lesson plans' hardly counts as 'informed professionalism'. Concluding a wide-ranging, passionately argued account of thirty-five years of teacher professionalism she suggests the current emphasis on performing and attaining, rather than learning and achieving, seems similarly puzzling as icons of professional aspiration. Sheila draws the final section of her paper to a close by suggesting three ways in which the teaching profession might collectively begin to reclaim its voice, its enthusiasm and its capacity to change what matters.

On Not Being a Teacher: the professional and personal costs of Workforce Remodelling

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: On Not Being a Teacher: the professional and personal costs of Workforce Remodelling
Author: PATRICK YARKER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 169-174
ABSTRACT The introduction of Workforce Remodelling poses profound questions about 21st century teacher professionalism. Here Patrick Yarker explores, not only the dangers and duplicity of one particular 'reform'. These moving, insightful reflections of a gifted, courageous teacher expose the personal and professional dilemmas that will always face those who work for radical change within the state education system. In asking 'How far is it proper for a teacher to stay silent or be silenced and disregard their personal views in the implementation of education policy?' he raises questions we are often too busy or too apprehensive to consider. And yet, 'What we teach is ourselves'. It is our relational engagement with young people that is at the heart of education.

Rescuing Teacher Professionalism

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Rescuing Teacher Professionalism
Author: DEREK GILLARD
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 175-180
ABSTRACT If teachers are to reclaim any sort of agenda - let alone a radical one - they need to be taken seriously as professionals. Why aren't they? Derek Gillard surveys the history of teaching in England and argues that teacher professionalism was a short-lived phenomenon which has been in decline for thirty years. Far from rescuing it from the Tories, New Labour has extended the process of de-professionalisation. With a third of the teachers recently saying they are considering leaving the profession within the next five years because of workload, initiative overload and the target-driven culture the issues Derek Gillard identifies as key to the process of professional renewal take on a particular significance.

Putting Education Back into Leadership

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Putting Education Back into Leadership
Author: HELEN GUNTER
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 181-188
ABSTRACT Leadership must always be suspect in a radical tradition, not because it is unnecessary or unimportant, but because it too readily re-enforces the status quo, even when it tries hard not to. Helen Gunter argues that leadership needs to re-engage with learning, not merely focus on performance, and that we need to have the courage to exercise judgement. Educational leadership is not just the must of delivering efficient and effective organisations, but is also about challenging the power structures and cultures that are inherited and can act as barriers to democratic development. It is about the central importance of re-engaging with the specifically 'public' nature of what education and schooling should be in a democratic society.

Illuminating Schools and Communities

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Illuminating Schools and Communities
Author: DAVID LIMOND
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 189-198
ABSTRACT The UK Government's commitment to Full-Service or Extended Schools is now firmly established in the Every Child Matters legislation. Here David Limond examines these developments, largely inspired and dominated by North American models, and in the light of older English and Scottish traditions argues for a more radical approach that exemplifies people's capacity to take charge of their own lives without bureaucratic interference. He argues that modern British Third Way communitarianism animating the current agenda is too often haphazard, poorly thought-out, driven by novelty and easy prey to authoritarian tendencies. He suggests current models of community school are little more than the extension of medicalised surveillance into the lives of certain people and the industrialisation of education as a whole.

Who's Afraid of Saul Alinsky? Radical traditions in community organising

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Who's Afraid of Saul Alinsky? Radical traditions in community organising
Author: PAT THOMSON
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 199-206
ABSTRACT Community involvement too often becomes a patronising, paternalistic process designed and delivered by professionals to control rather than enable and empower. What alternatives are there? Pat Thomson argues that within the international radical tradition we have some important answers and urges us to draw once again on the work of people like Saul Alinsky who encouraged those made poor by economic, demographic and social changes can take an equal part in designing solutions for their problems. In addition to those wider solidarities she also reminds us of our own traditions of community organising that have deeper roots and more tangible relevance to local concerns and everyday lives than the 'manufactured civil society' we are in danger of creating.

The Challenges Facing Comprehensive Schools

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: The Challenges Facing Comprehensive Schools
Author: CLYDE CHITTY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 207-211
ABSTRACT This article is an edited version of a talk written for delivery at a conference organised to celebrate 50 years of Kidbrooke Comprehensive School with the overall theme 'The Comprehensive Ideal: taking it beyond the individual school'. Having honoured the pioneering work at Kidbrooke, Clyde Chitty then takes a close look at three key issues: the 'collegiate' scheme proposed by Tim Brighouse, the long-running debate about catchment areas, and the centrality of curriculum reform. The article concludes by arguing that we cannot allow the government to redefine the comprehensive ideal simply as a means of legitimising the introduction of yet more diversity into an already complex and unworkable secondary system.

On the Comfort of the Wilderness: the significance of Lord Andrew Adonis, de facto Secretary of State for Education

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: On the Comfort of the Wilderness: the significance of Lord Andrew Adonis, de facto Secretary of State for Education
Author: FRANCIS BECKETT
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 212-214
ABSTRACT Here Francis Beckett, formerly Education Correspondent of the New Statesman and long-time member of the Labour Party 'Comprehensive Futures' group set up to further the cause of non-selective schools for all children reflects on the prospects for radical state education in New Labour's third term. He argues that with Andrew Adonis made a lord to enable him to be kept in charge of education the likelihood of progress in directions this journal would support seem highly unlikely. In these circumstances Francis Beckett opts for a 'wilderness' that he suggests is likely to be a more comfortable place to be than contemporary alternatives.

Radical Policies, Progressive Modernisation and Deepening Democracy: the Academies programme in action

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Radical Policies, Progressive Modernisation and Deepening Democracy: the Academies programme in action
Author: STEPHEN J. BALL
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 215-222
ABSTRACT One of the tricky things we have to wrestle at present is whether or not we should believe what often sounds like good policy, policy that trumpets the involvement of those who are to be affected by it. Is 'engaging with the local' to be taken seriously or not? Is the language of participation a linguistic sleight of hand or an indicator of a revival of our democratic way of life? In looking in some detail at the Academies programme Stephen Ball pushes us back to wider issues such as these and suggests that too often we end up with 'fast' policy and 'elite' solutions in which government and big business impose their own aspirations and intentions on local communities.

Another School is Possible: learning from Europe

Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:10:50 GMT

Title: Another School is Possible: learning from Europe
Author: TERRY WRIGLEY
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Pages: 223-232
ABSTRACT In this impassioned attack on the profound failure of the current English system of schooling Terry Wrigley reminds us of inspirational European alternatives, particularly but not exclusively, from Scandinavia. They not only produce better 'results' as measured by international league tables; they also produce better 'results' in the wider, more exacting senses that radical democratic progressive education advocates. The challenges, both national and global, that education now faces are daunting. Yet, it is becoming increasingly difficult to think outside the frame, especially for younger teachers perhaps who have not known anything else. Studying alternative traditions in Europe and elsewhere, as well as pockets of enlightenment here, may have a significant role in helping us to think outside the box.

Editorial

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-1
ABSTRACT By and large, the technical aspects of teaching have not figured largely amongst the principal concerns of FORUM writers or readers. From line making with sticks in the sand, to chalk on slate, wax crayon on paper and the electronic bells and whistles of the present day whiteboards, mark making and meaning have been an assumed given with its advantages and drawbacks. ICT has speeded up many processes and opened up new possibilities but none pose basic questions about education or human values such as truth, compassion, tolerance or fairness. Nor is it expected that they should: we use our tools as we will and if they serve our purposes in helping to ask such questions or encouraging our children to ask such questions, so much the better. The creative and imaginative uses of ICT, particularly and appropriately for older children, can be most impressive.

This is the point where educationists may take their eye off the ball, however; in welcoming, adapting and using new technologies to serve the interests of educating their children, the increasing administrative use of ICT is just seen as an additional onerous chore. Specious data collection is resented as time wasting on the part of teacher and pupil alike, the repeated testing which generates much of the data being known to have a downward spiral effect on motivation, particularly on groups of their vulnerable pupils such as those with low self esteem.

Teachers grit their teeth though, deliver the data and try to turn to more constructive uses of their time but it is essential that this side of ICT is seen as becoming more and more dangerously influential in shaping what actually happens in schools. Electronic technology is becoming the engine that drives the curriculum. Learning becomes performance. It doesn't ask the big questions, because in its 21st century version of Gradgrind's approach to 'education', there are none to be asked. It can only ask the little questions that can have numbers attached, but it asks them loudly and insistently until they sound important.

To those in the present Government to whom micro-management is seemingly the ultimate and unquestioned goal, it is presenting a level of unprecedented control that should be creating increasingly deep unease amongst all educators, to say nothing of all citizens. Only pre-World War II Germany and Soviet Russia have seen bureacratisation refined to such an exquisite degree.

Thus it is that Tony Blair can promise 'greater dialogue with parents and to address the weaknesses as well as the strengths of the individual in a more customised fashion'. (Guardian, March 3, 2005). This is not just vote-grabbing. His civil servants have told him that schools and teachers now collect, indeed have to collect, sufficient computerised data on each pupil, primary and secondary, so that this 'customisation' is now possible. Children and teachers are now effectively electronically tagged. It can tell us that Darren is still confused about colons and semi-colons but it will never be able to tell us that he knows the names and ways of all the fresh water fish in the rivers around South London. Saheel may be failing on her grasp of clause analysis but tests say nothing about her exquisite Arabic calligraphy. Subsequently parents are to be encouraged to think that the trivial is all that matters; it must be important, we have the print out. Would that it stopped there though.

Another side to this control now offered by electronic devices over school children's lives is no longer the stuff of over-heated imaginations. Many larger secondary schools use swipe cards for registration, dinners, etc. but a recent technology conference by the Specialist Schools Trust (Times Educational Supplement, March 4 2005) was informed about a device, up to now used by industry, called radio frequency identification (RFID). The potential for monitoring practically every aspect of a child's, and indeed teacher's life, is quite breathtaking and creditably it was suggested by the managing director of one of the leading multinational networking companies, Bill Fowler, that schools actually need to grapple with the ethics of this potential before they use it. Ah, yes, ethics - a dimension that does not appear to have occurred to the Government in the similar contexts mentioned above. But perhaps in the area they are wont, and indeed have a fondness for, calling 'blue-sky thinking' they already have their sights on the ultimate solution. Where America leads it has not gone unnoticed that Tony Blair is unaccountably, quite pathetically even, drawn to follow. A solution by an American company, Applied Digital Solutions, (already given approval in the USA) is to insert such a radio controlled device, the size of a grain of rice, under the skin of every pupil. Sounds outrageous? So did league tables once....

Annabelle Dixon

Big Business and School Exams: 'catching johnny before he falls'

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Big Business and School Exams: 'catching johnny before he falls'
Author: Patrick Yarker
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Pages: 2-5
ABSTRACT Not available

Academics and How to Beat Them: our pits, our jobs, but not our schools'

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Academics and How to Beat Them: our pits, our jobs, but not our schools'
Author: Matt Bailey
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Pages: 6-7
ABSTRACT Not available

Network Leadership's Balancing Act: contrivance or emergence?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Network Leadership's Balancing Act: contrivance or emergence?
Author: Chris Kubiak; Joan Bertram
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Pages: 8-11
ABSTRACT Not available

School Transformation 'through Community Values: imperial school, mitchell's plain, south africa

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: School Transformation 'through Community Values: imperial school, mitchell's plain, south africa
Author: David Jackson
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Pages: 12-18
ABSTRACT Not available

Extended or Restricted Childhood?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Extended or Restricted Childhood?
Author: Colin Richards
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Pages: 19-19
ABSTRACT Not available

Special Needs - Special Boxes

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Special Needs - Special Boxes
Author: Elizabeth Jurd
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Pages: 20-22
ABSTRACT Not available

Homophobia Approached by a Theatre Company: small steps ...

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Homophobia Approached by a Theatre Company: small steps ...
Author: Clair Chapwell
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Pages: 23-23
ABSTRACT Not available

An Educational Exploration of Homophobia and Sexism in Rap and Hip Hop: homo-thugs and divas in da house

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: An Educational Exploration of Homophobia and Sexism in Rap and Hip Hop: homo-thugs and divas in da house
Author: Nicholas Chiu
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Pages: 23-29
ABSTRACT Not available

Key Stage 3: an alternative strategy

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Key Stage 3: an alternative strategy
Author: John Quicke
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Pages: 30-33
ABSTRACT Not available

Talking and Literacy in the Early Years

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Talking and Literacy in the Early Years
Author: Stuart Button; Peter Millward
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Pages: 34-38
ABSTRACT Not available

Ofsted: the keeping of curious company?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Ofsted: the keeping of curious company?
Author: Mark Edwards
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2005 Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Pages: 39-39
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Pages: 85-85
ABSTRACT The Privatisation of Education

One of the issues touched upon in the article in this number with the title 'The Illusion of Choice' is that of the creeping privatisation of education in this country. Tony Blair, Alan Milburn, Charles Clarke and John Reid all seem to believe that it matters little who actually delivers education and health, provided there is some evidence of efficiency and economic savings. Yet, quite apart from concerns regarding the erosion of the public service ethos, it hardly seems axiomatic that the involvement of the private sector does mean success, efficiency and public approval. And we surely have a right to be concerned about some of the individuals and companies who benefit from the Government's patronage and largesse.

At the beginning of October 2004, it was confirmed that Britain's biggest out-sourcing company, Capita, had been awarded a £177m five-year contract - the largest in education so far - to manage the Government's twin strategies for improving standards of reading and writing in the country's primary and secondary schools.

In a story carried by The Guardian with the heading 'Capita's school deal under fire' (2 October 2004), the Department for Education and Skills said that, in assuming complete responsibility for the national primary and Key Stage 3 strategies from April 2005, Capita Strategic Education Services would be expected to help ministers hit their targets for literacy and numeracy. (It is interesting to note that primary schools have still not met the levels promised for 2002, an issue on which both David Blunkett and Estelle Morris said they would resign as Education Secretary). The new contract will involve hiring thousands of reading and maths consultants to 'advise' schools and local education authorities on how to deal with 'under-achieving pupils' and how to raise the test scores at ages 11 and 14.

Capita itself has been blamed for the botched introduction of the Criminal Records Bureau - which caused the system for checking the background of new teachers and other staff working with children to break down in the Autumn of 2002 - and for the problematic administration of London's congestion charge in its early days. And the Government seems intent on contracting work out to private sector firms like Capita while the DfES is busy shedding thousands of civil servants' jobs.

Phil Willis, the Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, has said that the award of the new contract also poses issues about conflicts of interest, since Capita is understood to be in the frame as a potential sponsor of a new city academy.

Which brings us neatly to what is probably the most controversial policy in the Government's recently-published Five-Year Strategy for Children and Learners: the proposed rapid expansion of the city academy programme. It is intended that the number of such academies - 17 in September 2004 - will have increased to 200 by the year 2010. This is, of course, all part of New Labour's project for enhancing choice, diversity and customer satisfaction in the secondary sector.

Writing in The Guardian on the 9 July 2004, Francis Beckett pointed out that the Government's new big idea for education in the form of the city academy has turned out to be the one that the Conservatives invented 18 years ago and then abandoned as a failure shortly afterwards. It is even run by the same man: Cyril Taylor, the entrepreneur appointed by the Thatcher Government in 1986 to create 30 City Technology Colleges.

New Labour has not made the Conservatives' mistake of asking for too much money from the schools' putative sponsors, settling on a figure of around £2m. For this relatively small sum of money, less than a fifth of the initial cost, the business virtually owns the school and acquires the right to put its name and logo on the signboard at the school entrance. It can decide which specialism the school chooses to adopt, and, within the increasingly flexible timetable imposed by the National Curriculum, which subjects are to be taught to older students. It can even impose a particular ideological slant on aspects of the teaching.

In the schools controlled by Sir Peter Vardy, an evangelical Christian who believes in creationism, Darwinism is taught not as a science, but as just one theory (undoubtedly misguided) of the way the world came into being. It was reported in The Times on the 24 July 2004 that this 'millionaire' car dealer had arranged for a document entitled Christianity and Curriculum to be available on the website of Emmanuel College in Gateshead which suggested, among other things, that Britain could have been saved from an invasion by Adolf Hitler in the Second World War by an act of God. This document emphasised the importance of using 'a frame of reference in which God is sovereign' when teaching history, going on to say that: 'in this context, it becomes important to consider why Hitler paused at the English Channel in 1940 before embarking on an invasion of Britain. Could it be that God was calling a halt to this march of evil?'

Sir Peter Vardy was one of the affluent individuals featured in a front-page article in The Independent of the 8 July 2004 headed: 'Should these people be running state schools?' Others included: Graham Able, the headteacher of Dulwich College in south London, charging fees of up to £20,000 a year; Sir Frank Lowe, the agent for such leading sports stars as Anna Kournikova, Mark Philippousis and Gareth Southgate; and Peter Sutherland, Head of the global investment bank Goldman Sachs. All these individuals seem likely to be running one or more city academies by the end of the decade. The question posed by The Independent surely deserves an answer; though it is difficult to see how the Government's policy can be described as anything other than indefensible.

The West African Supply Teacher as 'Other' in London Secondary Schools

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: The West African Supply Teacher as 'Other' in London Secondary Schools
Author: Kabbie Koroma
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Pages: 86-91
ABSTRACT Not available

Who Needs it? Who Wants it? A Critical Investigation into Modern Foreign Language Learning

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Who Needs it? Who Wants it? A Critical Investigation into Modern Foreign Language Learning
Author: Neil Wilson
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Pages: 92-96
ABSTRACT Not available

Daddies have Wallets and Mummies have Purses: raising gender issues with four- to five-year-olds

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Daddies have Wallets and Mummies have Purses: raising gender issues with four- to five-year-olds
Author: Heidi L. Shanker
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Pages: 97-99
ABSTRACT Not available

The Problems of Teaching the Holocaust in the History Classroom

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: The Problems of Teaching the Holocaust in the History Classroom
Author: Lucy Russell
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Pages: 100-103
ABSTRACT Not available

Inside the Foundation Stage: a good life for four- and five-year-olds?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Inside the Foundation Stage: a good life for four- and five-year-olds?
Author: Mary Jane Drummond
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Pages: 104-105
ABSTRACT Not available

The Illusion of Choice

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: The Illusion of Choice
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Pages: 106-112
ABSTRACT Not available

History Matters

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: History Matters
Author: Derek Gillard
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Pages: 110-112
ABSTRACT Not available

Learning without Limits

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Learning without Limits
Author: Chris Kearney
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Pages: 113-114
ABSTRACT Not available

Letter to the Editor

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:18 GMT

Title: Letter to the Editor
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 3 Pages: 115-115
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Annabelle Dixon
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Pages: 45-45
ABSTRACT

‘You’re playing with words!’ (David Miliband, Interview, Radio 4, July 9, 2004

Well, at least it can be said that Miliband and his masters know the name of the game, although there’s evidently an assumption that only one side should be allowed to play it.

It has not gone un-noticed that New Labour’s five year plan for education relies heavily on that category of words, the abstract noun. One of the rules of the game is that you should take otherwise creditworthy words such as ‘choice’, ‘freedom’, ‘excellence’ ‘opportunity’ etc. etc. and devalue their coinage by certain calculated moves so that they can all be scooped up successfully when they arrive in the so-called ‘Community Chest’ and be made to serve your own ends.

By the time the words have got to the point where they only bear a passing resemblance to their original meaning, the fun can begin. All that is neeed is a gullible public for whom the words had, in their original form, certain attraction and persuade them that these indeed are what they’re going to be given and examples will be rapidly and unceasingly passed before them so that it can be seen what these words might mean in practice. For instance, Sheila Dainton, writing in this issue of FORUM, examines the contemporary meaninglessness of so-called ‘personalised learning’. The more thoughtful will come to see that some words they thought they understood just demonstrate they have been labouring under a delusion, for example ‘comprehensive’ actually means ‘academy’, ‘non-selection’ actually means ‘selection’, ‘choice’ actually means ‘restriction’ and so on.

For the game that is being played is the one dangerous to all and any civilisation; take the words that represent its deeper structures, words that have taken long experience to have meaning within the society and trivialise them for passing political ends by giving them an entirely surface structure. This was the dichotomy Noam Chomsky applied to his analysis of language and grammar but it can easily be applied, metaphorically, to many other situations and circumstances.

A telling example, and one that bears no little relevance to the above ‘game’ is the recent report (Times Educational Supplement, July 4 2004) by educational researchers at the University of Warwick. They found that children given the choice to use the internet for research into the history of bicycles did so with great gusto although there was a curious and disappointing similarity to their eventual work. Asked about the topic a few weeks later it seemed the children ‘could remember little of what they had learnt’(the assumption that they had ever learned anything in the first place was seemingly not queried but it appeared an indisputable fact that they had enjoyed using the internet). A machine that gives an apparent sense of control and a contrived liveliness is naturally going to have an appeal. A publicity machine that revs up the attraction and appeal of new ‘educational choices’ is going to have the same effect and the same shallowness is going to be observed – in one case the children didn’t learn anything and in the other case it’s fervently hoped the electorate won’t either.

Distinctive Education Policies in Wales

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Distinctive Education Policies in Wales
Author: Jane Davidson
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Pages: 46-51
ABSTRACT Not available

KS3 SATS: alas, poor country...

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: KS3 SATS: alas, poor country...
Author: Patrick Yarker
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Pages: 52-55
ABSTRACT Not available

Personalised Learning

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Personalised Learning
Author: Sheila Dainton
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Pages: 56-58
ABSTRACT Not available

Values Education at Greenfield Lower School: the seamless robe

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Values Education at Greenfield Lower School: the seamless robe
Author: Elise Alexander; Diane Thomas
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Pages: 59-62
ABSTRACT Not available

Choice and Diversity of Schooling Provision: does the emperor have any clothes?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Choice and Diversity of Schooling Provision: does the emperor have any clothes?
Author: Ron Glatter
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Pages: 63-69
ABSTRACT Not available

The Small Schools Movement

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: The Small Schools Movement
Author: Mary Tasker
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Pages: 70-72
ABSTRACT Not available

Comprehensive Schooling: in need of definition?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Comprehensive Schooling: in need of definition?
Author: Natalie Heath
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Pages: 73-76
ABSTRACT Not available

Research with the Pupils 'in the Middle' at KS3 'Levels Just Show How Average You Are'

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Research with the Pupils 'in the Middle' at KS3 'Levels Just Show How Average You Are'
Author: Valerie Dagley
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 2 Pages: 77-82
ABSTRACT Not available

Foreward

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Foreward
Author: Doreen Massey
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-1
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Jane McGregor
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 2-5
ABSTRACT Not available

Breaking down the School Walls

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Breaking down the School Walls
Author: Matthew Horne
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 6-6
ABSTRACT Not available

Networked Learning Communities and Out of School Hours Learning: two portraits

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Networked Learning Communities and Out of School Hours Learning: two portraits
Author: Kirsten Hill
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 7-8
ABSTRACT Not available

An Uneasy Future: spatial changes at one school in South Africa

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: An Uneasy Future: spatial changes at one school in South Africa
Author: Jenni Karlsson
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 9-12
ABSTRACT Not available

Space Power and the Classroom

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Space Power and the Classroom
Author: Jane McGregor
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 13-18
ABSTRACT Not available

Space, Schools and the Younger Child

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Space, Schools and the Younger Child
Author: Annabelle Dixon
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 19-23
ABSTRACT Not available

Pedagogy in a Public Space: children and adults learning together at Tate Modern

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Pedagogy in a Public Space: children and adults learning together at Tate Modern
Author: Michaela Ross; Roger Hancock; Kate Bagnall
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 24-27
ABSTRACT Not available

Teachers' Construction of Space and Place: the method in the madness

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Teachers' Construction of Space and Place: the method in the madness
Author: Janice Bissell
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 28-32
ABSTRACT Not available

Power Relations and Staffroom Spaces

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Power Relations and Staffroom Spaces
Author: Carrie Paechter
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 33-35
ABSTRACT Not available

Revoicing Classrooms: a spatial manifesto

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: Revoicing Classrooms: a spatial manifesto
Author: Kenn Fisher
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 36-38
ABSTRACT Not available

The Use of Space in 21st Century Education Culture: the classrooms and schools of the future - a perspective on policy

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: The Use of Space in 21st Century Education Culture: the classrooms and schools of the future - a perspective on policy
Author: Helena Campion
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 39-40
ABSTRACT Not available

User Involvement in School Building Design

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:19 GMT

Title: User Involvement in School Building Design
Author: Sharon Wright
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2004 Volume: 46 Issue: 1 Pages: 41-43
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial. Examination Overhaul

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:20 GMT

Title: Editorial. Examination Overhaul
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Pages: 81-82
ABSTRACT Not available

War and Peace and Race and Equality Issues

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:20 GMT

Title: War and Peace and Race and Equality Issues
Author: David Rosenberg
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Pages: 83-87
ABSTRACT Not available

Music in Key Stage 2: training and supporting the non-music specialist class teacher

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:20 GMT

Title: Music in Key Stage 2: training and supporting the non-music specialist class teacher
Author: Heather Brewer
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Pages: 88-91
ABSTRACT Not available

Didactus Interruptus: or, why the Key Stage 3 English Strand should withdraw (and what should happen next)

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:20 GMT

Title: Didactus Interruptus: or, why the Key Stage 3 English Strand should withdraw (and what should happen next)
Author: Viv Ellis
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Pages: 92-97
ABSTRACT Not available

The Hours of Folly: settling accounts with SATS

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:20 GMT

Title: The Hours of Folly: settling accounts with SATS
Author: Patrick Yarker
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Pages: 98-101
ABSTRACT Not available

Justice, Inclusion and Comprehensive Values: three essays on comprehensive education

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:20 GMT

Title: Justice, Inclusion and Comprehensive Values: three essays on comprehensive education
Author: David Howard
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Pages: 102-108
ABSTRACT Not available

Floor Targets Will Cause Schools to Fail

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:20 GMT

Title: Floor Targets Will Cause Schools to Fail
Author: David Brown
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Pages: 109-110
ABSTRACT Not available

Food for Thought: child nutrition, the school dinner and the food industry

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:20 GMT

Title: Food for Thought: child nutrition, the school dinner and the food industry
Author: Derek Gillard
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Pages: 111-118
ABSTRACT Not available

Networked Learning: from competition to collaboration

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:20 GMT

Title: Networked Learning: from competition to collaboration
Author: Barbara Spender
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Pages: 119-120
ABSTRACT Not available

Learning Mentors: policy 'hopes', professional identities and 'additionalities'

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:20 GMT

Title: Learning Mentors: policy 'hopes', professional identities and 'additionalities'
Author: John Bateman; Christopher Rhodes
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Pages: 121-123
ABSTRACT Not available

School Governors

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:20 GMT

Title: School Governors
Author: Julia Bard
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Pages: 124-126
ABSTRACT Not available

Book Review

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:20 GMT

Title: Book Review
Author: Chris Searle
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Pages: 127-127
ABSTRACT Not available

Students Leadership: creating learning communities

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Students Leadership: creating learning communities
Author: Elise Alexander; Phil Sandell
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 35-38
ABSTRACT Not available

Assessment: servant or dictator?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Assessment: servant or dictator?
Author: Sue Swaffield
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 39-43
ABSTRACT Not available

Key Stage 3: strategy or straight-jacket?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Key Stage 3: strategy or straight-jacket?
Author: Sheila Dainton
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 44-46
ABSTRACT Not available

Pioneering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Pioneering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Author: Victoria Rataj-Worsnop
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 47-52
ABSTRACT Not available

A Chance for an Inclusive and Unified English Baccalaureate System from 14+?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: A Chance for an Inclusive and Unified English Baccalaureate System from 14+?
Author: Anne Hodgson; Ken Spours
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 53-57
ABSTRACT Not available

Target Setting

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Target Setting
Author: Andrew Thomson
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 58-60
ABSTRACT Not available

Pupil Transience

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Pupil Transience
Author: Neil Duncan
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 61-63
ABSTRACT Not available

Small School Collaborative Working

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Small School Collaborative Working
Author: Richards Colin
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 64-66
ABSTRACT Not available

Is UK Education Exceptionally Unequal?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Is UK Education Exceptionally Unequal?
Author: Andy Green
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 67-70
ABSTRACT Not available

Teaching Assistants: students or servants?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Teaching Assistants: students or servants?
Author: John Quicke
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 71-74
ABSTRACT Not available

Systems Thinking in Education

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Systems Thinking in Education
Author: Frank Newhofer
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Pages: 75-77
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-2
ABSTRACT The second half of January 2003 saw the publication of two very important documents on education by the Blair Government: a discussion document with the title 14-19: Opportunity and Excellence and a White Paper on The Future of Higher Education. This Editorial aims to present a brief preliminary analysis of their main proposals; and I will deal with each of the documents in turn.

14-19: Opportunity and Excellence

Many of the ideas and themes presented in this new document were foreshadowed in the DIES Green Paper 14-19: Extending Opportunities, Raising Standards, published in February 2002 and discussed in the Summer 2002 number of FORUM. Yet in some respects this 2003 document is stronger and more coherent than the one published a year ago because the Government has clearly taken note of many of the views expressed at the 58 Green Paper consultation meetings held around the country last Summer.

There is still a strong commitment to the idea of a 14 to 19 'continuum', with the age of 16 thereby losing its traditional status as a major 'break-point' in the lives of young people. What the Government seems clearly anxious to articulate is an evolving vision for greater coherence in the 14 to 19 phase of education and training combined with a flexible approach which enables all students to proceed at a pace best suited to their developing abilities and preferred ways of learning. To all intents and purposes, then, the National Curriculum will now effectively end at 14, followed by greater flexibility and a clearer sense of continuity in the years spanning the age 16 barrier.

It is proposed that English, mathematics and science will remain at the heart of the compulsory curriculum for 14 to 16 year-olds, with the current substantial Programme of Study for science being reviewed to arrive at a core content that is considered suitable for all learners. All students will learn about work and enterprise; and ICT (information and communications technology) will remain compulsory for the time being, though with the understanding that the skills involved will increasingly be taught through other subjects in future years. Citizenship, religious education, sex education, careers education and physical education will remain compulsory to ensure, in the words of the document, that 'all students continue to learn to be responsible and healthy adults'. As envisaged in the 2002 Green Paper, modern foreign languages and design and technology will no longer be 'required study' for all 14 to 16 year-old students and will join the arts and the humanities as subjects where there will be 'a new statutory entitlement of access'.

The document is anxious to highlight three reforms designed to address the weakness and low status of vocational education. It points out that new GCSEs in eight vocational subjects were introduced in September 2002: in Applied Art and Design; Applied Business;

Engineering; Health and Social Care; Applied ICT; Leisure and Tourism; Manufacturing; and Applied Science. Each was designed to be a double award, equivalent to two GCSEs. Now to complement this initiative, there is to be a new system of 'hybrid' GCSEs each with a common core and optional vocational or general units. Secondly, modern apprenticeships will be improved and expanded, so that at least 28 per cent of young people can become apprentices by 2004. Thirdly, GCSEs and A Levels will no longer be labelled as either 'vocational' or 'academic' (or indeed as 'hybrid'). The document rightly points out that status matters and that engineering should enjoy equal status with mathematics or art and design.

There are a number of issues where the Government has clearly had second thoughts since the publication of the Green Paper. There will be no new A Level A grade 'with distinction', the Government preferring to stick with the Advanced Extension Awards (AEAs) which were introduced in the Summer of 2002 to 'stretch' the most able Advanced Level students by requiring a greater depth of understanding than does A Level itself.

At the same time, the Government has decided to scrap the proposal for a new 'overarching award' to mark the completion of the 14 to 19 phase, called provisionally the Matriculation Diploma. This was attacked by many organisations for the lack of a foundation level diploma, below the intermediate level, which would send out all the wrong signals to those students who are most difficult to motivate. It is also true that universities and employers were not attracted to the idea and that without such currency, the Matriculation Diploma simply could not succeed.

The document deliberately distinguishes between short-term and long-term reforms. It announces the appointment of a new Working Group for 14 to 19 Reform, to be headed by former Chief Inspector Mike Tomlinson, which will be expected to look at the possible introduction of an English Baccalaureate, designed to recognise vocational and academic courses as well as activities outside the classroom, such as volunteering, and reward achievements by students at both ends of the so-called 'ability spectrum'. In the words of the document: Baccalaureate-style qualifications of this type work well in other countries, and we believe that this model, designed to suit English circumstances, could tackle longstanding English problems, giving greater emphasis to completing courses of study (and training as appropriate) through to the age of 18 or 19, without a heavier burden of examination and assessment' (page 13). This suggested area of reform, threatening as it does the so-called 'gold standard' A Level, has received considerable emphasis in newspaper reports of the discussion document - the headline to the story in The Times Educational Supplement (24 January 2003) being 'Future without A Levels is on the cards'.

There are, of course, shortcomings and disappointments in the Government's new approach. For one thing, the document shows great timidity where the future of the GCSE is concerned. On page 11, it accepts that the GCSE has become a qualification at two levels, with Level 2 (or grades A*-C) being viewed by the public as 'success' and Level I (or grades D-G) being widely seen as 'failure'. This means that for many young people, achieving Level I is demotivating and that they would often prefer not to reveal that they have taken GCSEs than admit to gaining a lower grade. We know that many secondary schools find it necessary to 'ration' their attention and resources in order to concentrate on those students at the 'borderline' between grades C and D. There really is no point in having a public examination at 16 if we are serious about wanting to establish a 14 to 19 'continuum'.

This leads us on to the second major disappointment in the document: the failure to abolish league tables. In any sensible 14 to 19 system, there would be no place for examination tables for 16 and 18 year-olds. It is, after all, the crucial factor of league table success that has led so many schools to developing new ways of identifying and encouraging those students who might, with additional support, manage a C grade in a number of subjects.

Finally, we seem to have abandoned any possibility of a broad, balanced and coherent curriculum for all students beyond the age of 14. Greater clarity about the future composition of an English bac might mean a reversal of current trends, but it is difficult to be optimistic about this. The proposed curriculum reforms are not supposed to take effect before the 2004/2005 academic year at the earliest; but we know that hundreds of secondary schools are 'jumping the gun' by dropping compulsory lessons in foreign languages and in design and technology. The key to combining flexibility and breadth at Key Stage Four lies in a modular curriculum structure, opening up the possibility of breadth over time, but the Government shows little or no sign of recognising this.

The Funding of Higher Education

After eighteen months of media speculation, four postponed launches and a number of well-informed 'leaked stories' about marked divisions of opinion within Blair's Cabinet, Education Secretary Charles Clark finally announced the Government's plans for the future funding of higher education in the 105-page White Paper The Future of higher Education, published on 22 January. We now know that universities in England will be able to charge 'top-up' tuition fees of up to £3,000 a year for their most popular and prestigious courses. Students will not have to pay the new fees until they have graduated and are earning at least £15,000 a year (a repayment threshold that is higher than the current one, of £ 10,000). Poorer students with parents or families earning less than £ 10,000 a year will be eligible for a grant of £1,000 a year. This will all come into effect in the Autumn of 2006. It has been

estimated that many students will leave university with total debts amounting to at least £21,000: £9,000 in tuition fees and £12,000 in maintenance costs. And accountancy experts have calculated that all this may well lead to graduates facing a higher rate of tax than that paid by millionaires, once they reach the £15,000 threshold (report in The Independent, 23 January 2003).

The Question of Access

Many have argued that the fear of debt will deter many teenagers, and particularly working-class teenagers, from embarking on a university course. We know that the social class gap among those entering higher education is already unacceptably wide and growing. Those from the 'top' three social classes are almost three times as likely to enter higher education as those from the 'bottom' three. And young people from professional backgrounds are over five times more likely to enter higher education than those from unskilled backgrounds.

The White Paper announces the appointment of an independent Access Regulator, whose task will be to agree with universities on action to increase the take-up of students from 'disadvantaged groups' and who can then impose penalties or withdraw the right to charge variable fees, where appropriate, if universities do not fulfil their part of the agreement. The aim of the appointment is a laudable one, but it is not clear exactly how this new system will work, and it is feared by many that could involve the imposition of new and invariably cumbersome bureaucratic controls and regulations.

Currently around 43 per cent of 18 to 30 year-olds in England enter some form of higher education; and the Government is committed to raising this figure to 50 per cent by the year 2010. The White Paper makes it clear that this target will largely be met by increasing the number of youngsters on new two-year vocational courses, many of these being offered at further education colleges. In the words of the document: 'We do not favour expansion on the single template of the traditional three-year honours degree' (p. 60).

Towards a New Structure for Higher Education?

The White Paper is about far more than new funding arrangements and the widening of access. What is being proposed is the rapid development or intensification of a hierarchy of institutions. Three-quarters of research funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England already goes to just 25 institutions. Now research money is to be concentrated even more on 'top-performing' departments. The Government is urging 'less research-intensive institutions' to all but forget about trying to make breakthroughs in, say, science and technology and instead to work more closely with local companies solving 'real-world problems'. In other words, what the Government wants is the wholesale restoration of the two-tier university/polytechnic divide.

Comprehensive Schools Then, Now and in the Future: is it time to draw a line in the sand and create a new ideal?, 3

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Comprehensive Schools Then, Now and in the Future: is it time to draw a line in the sand and create a new ideal?, 3
Author: Tim Brighouse
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Pages: 3-11
ABSTRACT Not available

The Right to a Comprehensive Education

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: The Right to a Comprehensive Education
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Pages: 12-16
ABSTRACT Not available

Diversity and Admissions to English Secondary Schools

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Diversity and Admissions to English Secondary Schools
Author: Peter Newsam
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Pages: 17-18
ABSTRACT Not available

Research Evidence and Government Policy: the need for a stronger connection

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Research Evidence and Government Policy: the need for a stronger connection
Author: John Dunford
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Pages: 19-21
ABSTRACT Not available

Curriculum Innovation: learning from the Queensland Project

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Curriculum Innovation: learning from the Queensland Project
Author: Mike Peters
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Pages: 22-23
ABSTRACT Not available

The ISED Project: developing emotional literacy and social justice

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: The ISED Project: developing emotional literacy and social justice
Author: Brian Matthews
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Pages: 24-25
ABSTRACT Not available

Teaching Assistants: whose definition?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Teaching Assistants: whose definition?
Author: Annabelle Dixon
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Pages: 26-29
ABSTRACT Not available

Review Article

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:21 GMT

Title: Review Article
Author: Patrick Yarker
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2003 Volume: 45 Issue: 1 Pages: 30-32
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial. Sinking Outside the Box

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:22 GMT

Title: Editorial. Sinking Outside the Box
Author: Annabelle Dixon
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 3 Pages: 93-93
ABSTRACT According to those who frequently organise courses for teachers on managing change, there is always someone in your school who is holding everything back. This person, and the folklore has it that they are white, middle-aged and grumpy, maintains that they have lived through more changes than his or her hearers have had hot dinners and none of these changes have worked. The message is that their pessimism is what is holding back your school in particular and the whole of education in general. Rid yourself of these individuals and the willingness to embrace change will be altered forthwith.

But suppose your teachers come from a different, younger generation and there's still some resistance, what then? Who is getting in the way of 'blue sky thinking', 'pushing open the envelope' and 'thinking outside the box'? Could it be that these teachers have joined others in education who have become distinctly guarded about those people who have recourse to such phrases in the first place? If nothing else, teachers are experienced in the way human nature can manifest itself; many will know children in their classes who become overly enthusiastic about something; who can't understand why others aren't similarly enthused to the exclusion of all other interests but whose passion quickly wanes only to be re-lit by yet another enthusiasm. Many children acquire considerable knowledge in this way and confined to that age-group, and DIY hobbyists, there is little harm done.

In adults who have responsibility for educational planning this enthusiasm for the new, the novel and the different is only too often translated as 'forward thinking' but recognised by teachers for the shallow, transient innovation it so often turns out to be. The impression given is that it is only the new and latest idea that is worth pursuing. Somehow it seems more attractive and exciting than asking questions of the past. Not for nothing has the government set up an 'innovations' unit within education, albeit there still seems to be a distinct fuzziness about its aim and definition. Change per se is what is going to get us out of the next problem so why not set up a unit devoted to it?

Education seems to have a disturbing collective amnesia, even for the recent past, so there were some wry smiles recently at OFSTED's new enthusiasm for topic work in primary schools (Times Educational Supplement, October 4, 2002) After years of seemingly endless new and ill thought-out initiatives it has appeared there might actually be some merit in examining previous practice after all. This is only a small and isolated example however. It will probably be a considerable time before first and middle schools are re-invented for instance. They are an example of change that was brought about by the insights of experienced teachers and educationists who recognised that change was required to meet the needs of children. Now it seems that the needs of politicians and the business world are those that have to be met. Significantly, 'thinking outside the box' and 'blue sky thinking' etc. were first used in financial and business management circles.

As it happens teachers are not averse to change that directly benefits all their pupils and often welcome it, in contrast to change that is imposed, for example, just to raise SATs scores or boost league table positions. Annoyingly for the government it is a distinction they find easy to make. Imaginative initiatives that meet the needs of ordinary people can often be successful as Michael Young so often demonstrated. He did indeed think 'outside the box' but his fundamental principles were not the same as those who presently advocate this approach as a cure-all. The future of comprehensive education is currently being subjected to this practice in a way that could and is endangering its very existence and perhaps there is a black cloud in the blue-sky thinking that wouldn't mind too much about its demise either. Re-labelling and re-organising schools so that it's hard to tell what it is your child is attending e.g. an academy, a specialist school, a high school, a city technology college etc. etc. is one way of dismantling the structure in the minds of the public. It could also mean that like topic work, a former practice might be reintroduced. Only this time a discredited one, that of secondary modern schools. The ordinary comprehensive will become the neighbourhood secondary modern 'sink' school. It could be a neat trick - after all, except in a few areas, there will be few parents who know or remember anything about them. 'Outside the box' might well be where a significant number of pupils will be finding themselves in a not-so-distant future. And sinking fast.

New Labour's Policy on Inclusion: will practice match principles?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:22 GMT

Title: New Labour's Policy on Inclusion: will practice match principles?
Author: Mary Hope
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 3 Pages: 94-98
ABSTRACT Not available

The Inclusive Curriculum: an education for the benefit of all young people?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:22 GMT

Title: The Inclusive Curriculum: an education for the benefit of all young people?
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 3 Pages: 99-102
ABSTRACT Not available

Drama: a post-National Curriculum overview of drama in education

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:22 GMT

Title: Drama: a post-National Curriculum overview of drama in education
Author: Patrice Baldwin
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 3 Pages: 103-106
ABSTRACT Not available

The Global Classroom and Learning School Projects: making it real. An account of innovative schools-based projects

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:22 GMT

Title: The Global Classroom and Learning School Projects: making it real. An account of innovative schools-based projects
Author: Gregor Sutherland
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 3 Pages: 107-109
ABSTRACT Not available

The Reintegration Centre at the City of Ely Community College: working with students

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:22 GMT

Title: The Reintegration Centre at the City of Ely Community College: working with students
Author: David Reeves
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 3 Pages: 110-112
ABSTRACT Not available

Literary Strategy: meet the Simpsons

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:22 GMT

Title: Literary Strategy: meet the Simpsons
Author: Helen Bromley
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 3 Pages: 113-116
ABSTRACT Not available

The Foundation Stage: a problem of competing philosophies

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:22 GMT

Title: The Foundation Stage: a problem of competing philosophies
Author: Nansi Ellis
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 3 Pages: 117-120
ABSTRACT Not available

International Equity Indicators in Education: defending comprehensive schools III

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:22 GMT

Title: International Equity Indicators in Education: defending comprehensive schools III
Author: Emma Smith; Stephen Gorard
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 3 Pages: 121-122
ABSTRACT Not available

reviews Harry Judge's Faith-based Schools and the State

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:22 GMT

Title: reviews Harry Judge's Faith-based Schools and the State
Author: Derek Gillard
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 3 Pages: 123-124
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial. Why New Labour Shouldn't be Touched with a Bargepole!

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:23 GMT

Title: Editorial. Why New Labour Shouldn't be Touched with a Bargepole!
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Pages: 45-45
ABSTRACT Not available

Creationism: bad science, bad religion, bad education

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:23 GMT

Title: Creationism: bad science, bad religion, bad education
Author: Derek Gillard
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Pages: 46-52
ABSTRACT Not available

The Confirmation of Fixed Ability: can't act, can't sign; can dance a little

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:23 GMT

Title: The Confirmation of Fixed Ability: can't act, can't sign; can dance a little
Author: Patrick Yarker
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Pages: 53-54
ABSTRACT Not available

Nursery Education: the current state of play

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:23 GMT

Title: Nursery Education: the current state of play
Author: John Wadsworth
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Pages: 55-58
ABSTRACT Not available

Eating Disorders and Comprehensive Ideals

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:23 GMT

Title: Eating Disorders and Comprehensive Ideals
Author: John Evans; Bethan Evans; Emma Rich
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Pages: 59-65
ABSTRACT Not available

Creative Looking and Responding

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:23 GMT

Title: Creative Looking and Responding
Author: Pamela Smyth
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Pages: 66-71
ABSTRACT Not available

Developing Pupil Involvement in the Assessment for Learning Process

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:23 GMT

Title: Developing Pupil Involvement in the Assessment for Learning Process
Author: Kit Messenger
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Pages: 72-77
ABSTRACT Not available

Improvement from the Bottom-up: assessing the impact of a self-evaluation project

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:23 GMT

Title: Improvement from the Bottom-up: assessing the impact of a self-evaluation project
Author: Howard Stevenson
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Pages: 78-81
ABSTRACT Not available

Standing up for Progressive Education: Alfie Kohn and the United Kingdom

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:23 GMT

Title: Standing up for Progressive Education: Alfie Kohn and the United Kingdom
Author: Mike Peters; Laurence Peters
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Pages: 82-83
ABSTRACT Not available

Privatisation: a further threat to educational initiative and local government

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:23 GMT

Title: Privatisation: a further threat to educational initiative and local government
Author: Bernard Regan
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Pages: 84-86
ABSTRACT Not available

Towards a 14 to 19 Framework

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:23 GMT

Title: Towards a 14 to 19 Framework
Author: Clyde Chitty; John Dunford; Denis Lawton
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 2 Pages: 87-92
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-1
ABSTRACT Not available

Tributes to Brian Simon

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Tributes to Brian Simon
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Pages: 2-6
ABSTRACT Not available

Developing Teaching Free from Ability Labelling: back where we started?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Developing Teaching Free from Ability Labelling: back where we started?
Author: Annabelle Dixon; Mary Jane Drummond; Susan Hart; Donald McIntyre
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Pages: 7-12
ABSTRACT Not available

The 2001 White Paper and the New Education Bill, 13

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: The 2001 White Paper and the New Education Bill, 13
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Pages: 13-14
ABSTRACT Not available

The Faith Schools Debate

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: The Faith Schools Debate
Author: Derek Gillard
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Pages: 15-23
ABSTRACT Not available

Just Words? A Critique of the KS1 Spelling Test

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Just Words? A Critique of the KS1 Spelling Test
Author: Annabelle Dixon
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Pages: 24-24
ABSTRACT Not available

Childcare Students: learning or imitating?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Childcare Students: learning or imitating?
Author: Elise Alexander
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Pages: 25-27
ABSTRACT Not available

Letter

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Letter
Author: Colin Richards
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Pages: 28-28
ABSTRACT Not available

Male Teachers in Primary Education

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Male Teachers in Primary Education
Author: Thomas Balchin
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Pages: 29-34
ABSTRACT Not available

Do Boys Need Male Primary Teachers as Positive Role Models?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Do Boys Need Male Primary Teachers as Positive Role Models?
Author: Elizabeth Burn
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Pages: 35-41
ABSTRACT Not available

Breaking the Mould: the issues facing men working in early childhood education

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Breaking the Mould: the issues facing men working in early childhood education
Author: John Wadsworth
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2002 Volume: 44 Issue: 1 Pages: 42-44
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Pages: 113-114
ABSTRACT This is the first number of FORUM to be prepared and edited in its entirety after the June 2001 General Election; and this extended Editorial provides me with an ideal opportunity to both look back over the four years of the first Blair administration and, at the same time, provide a personal assessment of prospects for the future in the light of the policies outlined in the Education Green Paper Schools: building on success: raising standards, promoting diversity, achieving results, launched back in February. It may well be that the key proposals in the Green Paper will have been 'updated' in the form of a new White Paper by the time this Editorial appears; but one imagines that the main trends of government policy will merely have been confirmed.

After 18 years of coping with the wild excesses of a succession of right-wing Tory governments, some FORUM readers might well have been prepared to give the Blair administration the benefit of the doubt where education policy is concerned. Yet the contents of the Green Paper, along with the Prime Minister's own well-publicised pronouncements on the failings of comprehensive education and the need for universal streaming and setting, seem to me to put the whole issue beyond question: put simply, New Labour is implacably opposed to everything this journal has campaigned for since the late 1950s. It matters not that Estelle Morris has now replaced David Blunkett as Education Secretary; the policies endorsing choice, diversity, selection and privatisation remain the same, and they must be challenged at every level.

It is quite extraordinary but very revealing that the Prime Minister saw no reason to distance himself from the deliberate and insulting claim made by his official spokesperson Alastair Campbell that the publication of the Green Paper meant that the day of 'the bog-standard comprehensive' was clearly over. Indeed, by arguing that the Green Paper was actually ushering in 'a post-comprehensive era', Tony Blair was giving welcome ammunition to all the opponents of comprehensive education, provoking headlines in the right-wing press like 'Death of the Comprehensive' in The Daily Mail and 'Comprehensives have failed' in The Daily Telegraph. From now on, according to the Prime Minister, everyone should be aware that 'promoting diversity' was indeed synonymous with 'raising standards' and 'achieving results'.

The Conservative Legacy

To be fair, it is, of course, true that New Labour inherited a sharply divided system of state schools at the secondary level. In addition to 164 grammar schools, concentrated in 36 local authorities in England, there were 1155 grant-maintained schools, accounting for 19.6% of students in secondary schools (but only 2.8% of primary-age children), 15 City Technology Colleges and 181 specialist schools and colleges, 151 specialising in technology and 30 in modern languages. Any attempt to create a successful comprehensive structure subject to fair and transparent admissions rules clearly faced formidable obstacles.

Yet the first Blair administration actually saw no need to tackle this degree of diversity and create a more unified system of schools. Nothing was done to secure the abolition of the existing 164 grammar schools, with campaigning groups finding it extremely difficult to activate the necessary local ballots of parents. In particular, the outcome of the ballot held in Ripon in March 2000, where groups of influential parents were able to secure the long term future of Ripon Grammar School, left many campaigners feeling angry and dispirited. Then again, there was concern that the phasing out of grant-maintained schools was to be accompanied by the introduction of three new categories of school: community, aided and foundation - with only community schools subject to admissions procedures determined by the local authority. And finally, it was a cause of much dismay and regret that incoming New Labour ministers were embracing the Conservatives' 'specialist schools' project with a zeal of which John Patten and Gillian Shephard would have been proud. By the beginning of 2001, the number of such schools had risen from 181 to 608. Moreover, the 1998 School Standards and Framework Act stipulated that specialist schools could select up to ten per cent of their intake on the basis of their aptitude for one or other of four 'specialist subject areas': technology, languages, sports and the arts.

The Programme for the Second Blair Administration

The Green Paper argues that primary education has already been 'transformed' with the introduction of such successful initiatives as the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies. It is now time to perform similar miracles with the secondary sector; and in this respect, there are a number of major themes and policy alignments running through the document, notably:

a rejection of the principles underpinning the era of the 'one size fits all' comprehensive (though it is, of course, debatable whether such an era ever actually existed);

a concern to see the promotion of diversity among secondary schools and the extension of autonomy for 'successful' schools; and

a desire for private and voluntary sector sponsors to play a greater role in the organisation of secondary education.

As a prime means of promoting 'diversity', the Government intends to accelerate the Specialist Schools Project so that there will be around 1,000 specialist secondary schools in operation by September 2003.

We now know that all specialist schools and colleges will receive a £100,000 capital grant plus £123 per student per year - a total of £225,000 for a school of 1,000 students. This will prove particularly divisive over the next five years as nearly half (46%) of all maintained secondary schools become specialist schools, while the other half have to be content with non-specialist status and no additional funding.

As an extension of the cherished Specialist Schools Programme, the Government intends to introduce in due course a new category of Advanced Specialist School which will be open to 'high-performing' schools after five years as 'specialist schools'. They will be expected to 'volunteer' to take on a number of innovative ideas from a 'menu' developed centrally by the new DfES (Department for Education and Skills). In return, they will receive an additional capital investment to strengthen their role as 'centres of excellence'. An important aspect of their work might well be initial teacher training, with many of these institutions playing a leading role as Training Schools.

Then, as yet another element in this bewildering array of new institutions, there are the Beacon Schools (the subject of a critical appraisal by David Webster in this number of Forum). These new Schools are intended to develop and spread good practice among neighbouring establishments. Back in March 1999, David Blunkett announced that there were to be around 1,000 Beacon Schools in operation by September 2002. It is now intended that there will be 1,000 of these Schools in existence by September 2001, a year ahead of schedule, including some 250 at secondary level.

The Green Paper is also anxious to see an increase in the number and variety of schools within the state system supported by the Church of England and other major faith groups. Some 560 secondary schools are already provided by the Church of England or the Catholic Church; and the Government wishes to see more Muslim, Sikh and Greek Orthodox Schools brought inside the state system and funded on the same basis as existing 'aided' schools.

In addition to more 'faith-based' schools, which act as their own admissions authority, the Government is also anxious to promote an increase in the number of schools that owe their existence to private sponsorship. The City Academy Programme, launched in March 2000, enables sponsors from the private and voluntary sectors to establish new schools whose running costs are then fully met by the state. Many have, in fact, seen the Programme as being modelled on the City Technology Colleges Project founded by the Conservatives in the late 1980s and which proved to be such a costly failure in its original format.

At the same time, the Government intends to develop a new model which will enable an external private or voluntary sector sponsor to take over responsibility for a 'weak' or 'failing' school against a fixed-term contract of, say, five to seven years, with renewal subject to performance. This will be based on the situation at King's Manor School in Guildford, where '3Es', a charitable off-shoot of the City Technology College at Kingshurst in the West Midlands, was given responsibility for establishing a new school in February 1999.

Other policies for tackling 'underperformance' and 'failure', such as the Excellence in Cities Programme launched in March 1999, are also discussed in the Green Paper, though there is little prominence given to the Education Action Zones Initiative which formed such an important part of the Excellence in Schools White Paper published in July 1997. What is stressed is that secondary schools operating in 'challenging circumstances' will be expected to achieve at least 15% of students gaining five GCSE A to C grades by 2003; 20% by 2004; and 25% by 2006.

As far as the internal organisation of schools is concerned, the Government wants to see more setting within subjects, including 'express sets' for 11 to 14 year olds to enable the 'most able' in each year group to advance beyond the level set for their age and to take Key Stage Three tests early. At Key Stage Four, students will still take a number of GCSEs, but, increasingly, they will be able to mix 'academic' and 'vocational' GCSEs and work-based options.

Towards a New Education System

There is very little in the Green Paper to please the supporters of a unified system of secondary education; the emphasis throughout is on competition and division.

Yet as long ago as 1993, the National Commission on Education was expressing concern, in its Final Report Learning to Succeed, about the Major Government's obsession with creating 'new types of secondary school' and warning that 'there is a serious danger of a hierarchy of good, adequate and "sink" schools emerging within the maintained system'.

Some headteachers and union leaders believe that all will be well if all secondary schools are allowed to become specialist schools, and perhaps there is a case for making the best of what has already happened (see John Dunford's piece in this number), but this is to ignore some very real problems. What happens, for example, if the local specialist school does not offer the specialism many parents want? And, in any case, in a highly competitive and divided society, specialisms can never be equal: they rapidly become ranked in a hierarchy of status.

It is also absurd for politicians to claim that greater diversity within the system will result in a greater choice of school for most parents. All the available evidence indicates that in a fragmented and layered system, it is invariably the schools that choose parents, rather than the other way round. Indeed, it was Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach, the right-wing Chairperson of the School Examinations and Assessment Council, who admitted back in February 1992 that 'if you give parents real choice in the system, it is inevitable (and probably desirable) that the schools themselves will demand to choose the kind of pupils that come'.

The education system towards which we are heading has nothing to commend it. It is part of an ugly concept of a meritocratic society which benefits the few at the expense of the many.

IQ, Racism and the Eugenics Movement

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: IQ, Racism and the Eugenics Movement
Author: Clyde Chitty
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Pages: 115-119
ABSTRACT Not available

Who has the Authority to Inspect Schools?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Who has the Authority to Inspect Schools?
Author: Colin Richards
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Pages: 120-123
ABSTRACT Not available

OFSTED Inspection and School Improvement

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: OFSTED Inspection and School Improvement
Author: Douglas Newton; Ian Shaw; Ross Darnell; Murray Aitkin
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Pages: 124-126
ABSTRACT Not available

Beacon Schools: New Labour education policy in a nutshell

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Beacon Schools: New Labour education policy in a nutshell
Author: David Webster
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Pages: 127-130
ABSTRACT Not available

The Future for Secondary Education

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: The Future for Secondary Education
Author: John Dunford
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Pages: 131-132
ABSTRACT Not available

Beginning Science Teachers: their views of scientists as revealed through drawings

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Beginning Science Teachers: their views of scientists as revealed through drawings
Author: Brian Matthews
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Pages: 133-139
ABSTRACT Not available

Chairs are More Than Just Governors: a radical change to the structure of governing bodies

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Chairs are More Than Just Governors: a radical change to the structure of governing bodies
Author: Michael Patrick Watson
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Pages: 140-146
ABSTRACT Not available

Why is the Private School Sector Not Doing Better?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Why is the Private School Sector Not Doing Better?
Author: Tom Buzzard
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Pages: 147-147
ABSTRACT Not available

Recent Educational Reform in Japan: focusing on the introduction of the 'Period for Integrated Study'

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Recent Educational Reform in Japan: focusing on the introduction of the 'Period for Integrated Study'
Author: Minoru Umezawa; Kanae Nishioka
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Pages: 148-150
ABSTRACT Not available

Indian Education in 2001: an overview

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Indian Education in 2001: an overview
Author: Shakuntala Banaji
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Pages: 151-152
ABSTRACT Not available

Schooling Citizens: a doomed experiment?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:24 GMT

Title: Schooling Citizens: a doomed experiment?
Author: Andrew Marks
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Pages: 153-160
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Michael Fielding
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 49-50
ABSTRACT This Special Issue looks at new developments within an area of practice that FORUM, with its rich history of advocacy for genuinely comprehensive public education, has always been supportive of, namely 'Student Voice'.

In the past, we have tended to approach student voice from either the standpoint of young people being given greater responsibility for their own learning through a more imaginative and flexible pedagogy, or we have concentrated on ways in which institutional forms of student engagement, such as school councils, could develop a more authentic collective voice that would lead, if not to a more democratic, then at least to more engaged forms of institutional and personal learning. Those concerns and aspirations remain. What is particularly interesting here is the fact that some of the new developments presented by a range of contributors seem to provide a bridge between the individual/pedagogic and the collective/school council practices that have so often provided the two poles of past student voice work.

Now, at least within many of the examples explored and celebrated within this Special Issue, there is a sense in which not only the previously forbidden area of teaching and learning is becoming a legitimate focus of enquiry from the standpoint of students as well as teachers, but also that the roles of teachers and students are beginning to become less exclusive and excluding of each other. Similarly, there is an emerging interconnectedness between and expansion of the arenas of classroom life, the wider contexts of the school as a whole, and community spaces and practices that exist outside the school. The reciprocity between student and teacher, school and community that have always been at the heart of a widely and richly conceived notion of education seems to be expressing itself in new ways and new forms that may hold out much hope for the future

We open our Student Voice Special Issue with three articles by young people who have been involved in some of the creative and vibrant developments alluded to above. Pupils at Wheatcroft Primary School in Hertford give a hugely uplifting and inspiring account of Working as a Team; Beth Crane's advocacy of the 'Students as Researchers' initiative as means of Revolutionising School-based Research and her fellow ex-Sharnbrook Upper School student, Chris Harding's, insistence that 'Students as Researchers' is as important as the National Curriculum lay appropriately challenging and exciting foundations for the rest of the Special Issue.

Louise Raymond's overview of the groundbreaking 'Students as Researchers' initiative in her Student Involvement in School Improvement: From Data Source to Significant Voice, provides a fascinating case study of how a small but radical student-led initiative can grow into something that has the potential to transform the nature of curriculum renewal and organisational learning. Leora Cruddas's account of working with young women with emotional and behavioural difficulties reminds us of the capacity of young people to work in ways which exceed inappropriately narrow expectations of teachers and fellow students. Her Rehearsing for Reality: Young Women's Voices & Agendas for Change also reminds us of the culpability of schools as-they-too-often-are in denying the creativity and responsibility that young people have within them to develop together with each other and their teachers.

Kate Bullock and Felicity Wikelely's Personal Learning Planning: Strategies for Pupil Learning again points to the possibility of pupil agency, but reminds us how far we have yet to go to listen and learn together in ways which are mutually fulfilling for those involved. Sara Bragg's Taking a Joke: Learning from Voices We Don't Want to Hear is at once disturbing and inspiring. It provides a challenge, later taken up by Elena Sylva in this Special Issue, that centres round the difficult problem of what our most appropriate response is to voices we find initially offensive or in other ways unacceptable to our current way of doing things. Other challenges to a too easy advocacy of student voice are taken up in Perpetua Kirby's Participatory Research in Schools. Her comprehensive overview of both the issues and the opportunities of working with young people in research is an important corrective to the quick recourse to questionnaires and other surface means of engagement that are so often predominantly adult and accountability driven.

In their Supporting Teachers in Consulting Pupils about Aspects of Teaching and Learning and Evaluating Impact John MacBeath, Kate Myers and Helen Demetriou offer us a number of very interesting examples of emerging practices that move steadily and thoughtfully beyond our traditional ways of working. However, as Isobel Urquhart's 'Walking on Air'? Pupil Voice & School Choice reminds us, we also have to face up the very uneven realities of very uneven progress. The disappointments and duplicity of an always unreal 'choice' for working class students in a market-driven system of education is an absolute outrage: and yet many seem to remain resilient, despite the manifest betrayal they suffer.

How interesting that we can look to Chile for leadership in citizenship education. Marcia Prieto's Students as Agents of Democratic Renewal in Chile is an inspiring account of innovative practice between the university sector and schools that holds many lessons for us all, not least of which is the increasing capacity of mutual learning between adults and students, thus blurring traditional role boundaries and pointing us towards the possibility of a more 'radical collegiality' for the 21st century. The two contributions from North America also have much to teach us, largely through their patient and fearless engagement with issues that have too often been glossed over in the understandable desire to promote student voice. Dana Mitra's Opening the Floodgates: giving students a voice in school reform is, perhaps, the more reassuring of the two, alluding in a number of places to very positive developments that hold out the possibility of mutual learning. Elena Sylva's 'Squeaky Wheels and Flat Tires': a case study of students as reform participants makes distinctly uncomfortable reading. And yet in that discomfort there lie the seeds of student voice as a driving force for change. What she urges us to face is the multiplicity of student voices that speak to us and the undeniable fact that so often only some of those voices get heard, usually those of articulate, middle class, white girls.

If we can grapple honestly with issues bearing on the multiplicity of student (and, indeed, teacher) voices then the student voice movement will really have come of age. My own Beyond the Rhetoric of Student Voice: new departures or new constraints in the transformation of 21st century schooling? draws on all the contributors to this Special Issue and on a wide range of published research and work-in-progress. It develops a framework for evaluating the conditions of student voice and through that framework attempts an appraisal of student voice as a force for genuine, positive change in our currently over-determined, largely anachronistic forms of schooling.

The messages, it seems to me, are ambivalent: I do make my own assessment of the way things are likely to go, but with trepidation and a real sense that even tentative forecasts are of little use in themselves: those we agree with we tend to forget about; those we dispute we tend to dismiss. Two things are important: firstly, that we listen to, hear and learn from each other, since it is through dialogue that meaning is made; secondly, we must act together and alone in ways which demonstrate courage, humility and an undeviating sense of hope. Contact the authors of the articles, contact each other. Come to Sussex University in the summer of 2002 and carry on the dialogue: I feel an international student voice conference for students, teachers and researchers coming on.

Pupils at Wheatcroft Primary School Working as a Team: children and teachers at Wheatcroft Primary School learning from each other

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Pupils at Wheatcroft Primary School Working as a Team: children and teachers at Wheatcroft Primary School learning from each other
Author:
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 51-53
ABSTRACT Not available

Revolutionising School-Based Research

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Revolutionising School-Based Research
Author: Beth Crane
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 54-55
ABSTRACT Not available

Students as Researchers is as important as the National Curriculum

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Students as Researchers is as important as the National Curriculum
Author: Chris Harding
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 56-57
ABSTRACT Not available

Student Involvement in School Improvement: from data source to significant voice

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Student Involvement in School Improvement: from data source to significant voice
Author: Louise Raymond
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 58-61
ABSTRACT Not available

Rehearsing for Reality: young women's voices and agendas for change

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Rehearsing for Reality: young women's voices and agendas for change
Author: Leora Cruddas
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 62-66
ABSTRACT Not available

Personal Learning Planning: strategies for pupil learning

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Personal Learning Planning: strategies for pupil learning
Author: Kate Bullock; Felicity Wikeley
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 67-69
ABSTRACT Not available

Taking a Joke: Learning from the Voices We Don't Want to Hear

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Taking a Joke: Learning from the Voices We Don't Want to Hear
Author: Sara Bragg
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 70-73
ABSTRACT Not available

Participatory Research in Schools

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Participatory Research in Schools
Author: Perpetua Kirby
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 74-77
ABSTRACT Not available

Supporting Teachers in Consulting Pupils about Aspects of Teaching and Learning, and Evaluating Impact

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Supporting Teachers in Consulting Pupils about Aspects of Teaching and Learning, and Evaluating Impact
Author: John MacBeath; Kate Myers; Helen Demetriou
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 78-82
ABSTRACT Not available

'Walking on Air'? Pupil Voice and School Choice

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: 'Walking on Air'? Pupil Voice and School Choice
Author: Isobel Urquart
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 83-86
ABSTRACT Not available

Students as Agents of Democratic Renewal in Chile

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Students as Agents of Democratic Renewal in Chile
Author: Marcia Prieto
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 87-90
ABSTRACT Not available

Opening the Floodgates: giving students a voice in school reform

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Opening the Floodgates: giving students a voice in school reform
Author: Dana Mitra
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 91-94
ABSTRACT Not available

'Squeaky Wheels and Flat Tires': a case study of students as reform participants

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: 'Squeaky Wheels and Flat Tires': a case study of students as reform participants
Author: Elena Silva
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 95-99
ABSTRACT Not available

Beyond the Rhetoric of Student Voice: new departures or new constraints in the transformation of 21st century schooling?

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:25 GMT

Title: Beyond the Rhetoric of Student Voice: new departures or new constraints in the transformation of 21st century schooling?
Author: Michael Fielding
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 2 Pages: 100-112
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:26 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Annabelle Dixon
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-1
ABSTRACT Cast your mind back - or in any direction, come to that: can you recall the last occasion on which you heard somebody defend with fervour the splitting up of the primary curriculum into chunks of unrelated 'subjects'; anyone speak from the heart on the desirability of depositing children into ability groups from which they may rarely escape; defend with genuine feeling the practice of league tables? Ever listened to someone justify such practices with passion on the grounds that they might make for a fairer society in which all children are given an equal chance to develop their own capabilities, and which will eventually bring about a more comprehensive, to say nothing of more comprehensible education?

The nearest to an emotional response that could be deemed passionate in relation to such initiatives might just be the extra gleam in the metallic eye of bureaucrats or politicians who have sensed opportunities for even further control; people who dismiss anything spoken about with feeling as a tiresome and juvenile element in debates that should be governed by what appears to be reason and rationality - in other words they take the view that one cannot credibly defend a position on any other grounds.

How fortunate then that we can point to those who have combined both passion and logic all their lives and been able to prove that not only can these be exemplified at a personal level but were able to use them to great effect in those arguments they defended so vigorously. Caroline Benn, whose life is celebrated in this issue by Clyde Chittty and Brian Simon, was one such outstanding example.

Ironically, many of these self-same bureaucrats and politicians owe much, as indeed we all do, to those whose reasoned arguments and passion to overcome what they saw as injustices, led to many of the great social and public-health improvements we now take for granted. These pioneers were also dismissed in their time, the passion they attached to their campaigns being dismissed as equally tiresome by their contemporaries in high office.

Interestingly, the present day bureaucratisation of education itself depends on a very particular, but by its bureaucrats, a largely unacknowledged emotion, if not for its defence then for its very perpetuation. This emotion was recently recognised and publicly named by Martin McGuinness, the Northern Ireland Minister for Education, who has stated why his country will no longer be using league tables and spelled out why: an education system that is built on a foundation of fear, as indeed league tables undoubtedly are, and which themselves generate even more fear, cannot belong to a country that wishes to call itself civilised.

Caroline Benn - tributes

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:26 GMT

Title: Caroline Benn - tributes
Author: Clyde Chitty; Brian Simon
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Pages: 2-3
ABSTRACT Not available

Effective Teaching: some contemporary mythologies

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:26 GMT

Title: Effective Teaching: some contemporary mythologies
Author: Andrew Davis; Brian Simon
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Pages: 4-8
ABSTRACT Not available

STOPPing Performance Pay

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:26 GMT

Title: STOPPing Performance Pay
Author: Patrick Yarker
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Pages: 9-12
ABSTRACT Not available

Testing, Testing, Testing ... Investigating Student Attitudes Towards, and Perceptions of, Eleven Years of Testing and Target Setting

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:26 GMT

Title: Testing, Testing, Testing ... Investigating Student Attitudes Towards, and Perceptions of, Eleven Years of Testing and Target Setting
Author: Non Worrall
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Pages: 13-18
ABSTRACT Not available

Listening to Children

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:26 GMT

Title: Listening to Children
Author: Alison Peacock
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Pages: 19-21
ABSTRACT Not available

A Word in Your Ear, Michael

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:26 GMT

Title: A Word in Your Ear, Michael
Author: Sally Tomlinson
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Pages: 22-22
ABSTRACT Not available

Carnival as Inclusive Education: exploring carnival arts in the curriculum

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:26 GMT

Title: Carnival as Inclusive Education: exploring carnival arts in the curriculum
Author: Celia Burgess-Macey
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Pages: 23-30
ABSTRACT Not available

Boxing Not So Cleverly: the increasing compartmentalisation of the primary curriculum

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:26 GMT

Title: Boxing Not So Cleverly: the increasing compartmentalisation of the primary curriculum
Author: David Rosenberg
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Pages: 31-33
ABSTRACT Not available

In Defence of Local Comprehensive Schools. Part II

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:26 GMT

Title: In Defence of Local Comprehensive Schools. Part II
Author: Stephen Gorard
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Pages: 34-36
ABSTRACT Not available

Selective Memories: reliving grammar school experiences in the comprehensive school

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:26 GMT

Title: Selective Memories: reliving grammar school experiences in the comprehensive school
Author: Kristine Black-Hawkins
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Pages: 37-42
ABSTRACT Not available

Exploring Teachers' Perceptions of the Causes, Dynamics, and Pressures of School Exclusion

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 13:19:26 GMT

Title: Exploring Teachers' Perceptions of the Causes, Dynamics, and Pressures of School Exclusion
Author: Elle Rustique-Forrester
Journal: FORUM
Year: 2001 Volume: 43 Issue: 1 Pages: 43-48
ABSTRACT Not available