A Subversive History of School Reform
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2016
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Change, change, change - conventional wisdom is that the classroom is the site of an endless set of reforms, a constant stream of White Papers and directives that promise 'revolution' and sudden changes in direction. Yet is the real story of school reform really one of continuity? Professor Alison Wolf of King's College London explores the post-war history of school reform in England. Speaking to former secretaries of state, historians, and teachers, she explores the forces and events that have shaped schools. She argues that real changes have been surprisingly few and that despite a great deal of fiery rhetoric, they have generally continued across party lines. And she asks if that means that governments have perhaps been listening to what parents genuinely want? Producer: Gemma Newby.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading analysis from the BBC. |
| 0:03.0 | I'm genuinely delighted to welcome back Allison Wolf as a presenter. |
| 0:07.2 | And today, as a new education secretary takes up office, Professor Wolf examines the curious history of 70 years of school reform in England. Monday period 1st one |
| 0:25.0 | 1 science |
| 0:26.0 | 2 geography 11 o'clock periods 3 and 4 history |
| 0:32.0 | mr. Bailey This sounds like my old school timetable periods three and four history of Mr Bailey. |
| 0:32.8 | This sounds like my old school timetable. |
| 0:35.0 | It sounds like everyone's school timetable. |
| 0:38.0 | But can so little really have changed? |
| 0:41.0 | It certainly doesn't feel that way to teach us more like decade upon decade of reform reform reform |
| 0:47.8 | 1984 |
| 0:49.2 | Butler Education Act 1946 report of Barlow Committee on Scientific Manpower 1950 Act. replaced. Over the next half hour I'll be talking to teachers, politicians and academics |
| 1:16.8 | about what has actually happened in English schools since 1945 and that |
| 1:21.8 | story is a surprising one. |
| 1:23.0 | It's a story of how social change, rolling through the post-war period, |
| 1:27.0 | has sparked a massive transfer and centralisation of power. |
| 1:31.0 | Democratic politics has transformed the landscape of education and this explains |
| 1:36.0 | another surprising and counterintuitive fact. |
| 1:39.9 | Behind the controversies about this or that reform, away from the noise of campaigns and conferences, |
| 1:45.0 | our political parties have largely pursued the same paths and for the same reasons. |
| 1:50.0 | We haven't had an oscillation between two systems. We've had successive governments |
| 1:57.7 | adapting to their own interests what the preceding government has left behind. |
... |
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