-
Recent Posts
- Zola : a political reading. August 13, 2023
- Hotter than July? August 5, 2023
- Rethinking work July 30, 2023
- Educating for political literacy in an age of crisis. July 21, 2023
- Savoirs et valeurs : pratiquer et conjuguer July 21, 2023
- ‘Transformative Teaching and Learning in Further Education – Pedagogies of Hope and Social Justice’ July 18, 2023
- Dilemmas of Growth June 14, 2023
- A broader view of skills? June 7, 2023
- In praise of ‘low value’ subjects. February 27, 2023
- Frigga Haug and the mystery of learning December 6, 2022
- Debating Growth. November 29, 2022
- Code red for human survival November 8, 2022
- The politics of silence. September 4, 2022
- Posts on Corsican themes. August 10, 2022
- When Corsica welcomed thousands of Serb refugees (1916) August 9, 2022
Recent Comments
Bev on 20 questions to ask about a bo… Bev on 20 questions to ask about a bo… Parole_Luri - SITESC… on Conrad in Corsica nivekd on Zola : a political readin… Eddie Playfair on Zola : a political readin… Archives
Categories
Categories
Meta
Category Archives: Education policy
A sixth form college manifesto for 2015
The Sixth Form College Association has published its manifesto for the 2015 general election. It will join the manifestos of many other organisations in politicians’ in-trays, no doubt prompting many warm words but few cast-iron promises. This was evident in … Continue reading
The fruits of democracy
Reclaiming Education (Nov 15th 2014) The theme of the excellent Reclaiming Education meeting in Birmingham on 15th November was ‘priorities for the next government’ and one of the key questions raised was: how do we ensure that our education system responds to … Continue reading
The bitter fruits of autonomy
In his speech on 12th November, schools reform minister Nick Gibb restated some of the key themes of this government’s education strategy and expressed his delight at seeing the ‘full fruits of autonomy in all their vivid abundance.’ To those … Continue reading
Posted in Education policy, NewVIc
Tagged autonomy, Democracy, Education, marketisation, selection, university progression
Leave a comment
What’s wrong with bite-sized learning?
The phrase ‘bite-sized learning’ suggests that a substantial, chunky educational programme has been chopped up into smaller pieces which are easy to take in but have lost any sense of overall meaning; little gobbets of knowledge of no real use. … Continue reading
Education and skills coming together?
The appointment of Peter Lauener as the chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) while remaining as chief executive of the Education Funding Agency (EFA) has prompted speculation that the two agencies could soon be merged, although this has … Continue reading
The oath and the compass
It sounds like the title of a medieval thriller; the brotherhood of educators send their top monks out to roam the world having sworn to serve learning and they solve all sorts of intractable problems with the help of a … Continue reading
‘Hindering’ subjects and ‘bad’ universities
The way we talk about subjects and universities has changed dramatically over the last few years, and not for the better. The English Bacc with its favoured GCSE subjects has led to a secondary school subject hierarchy which appears to … Continue reading
Reading the education manifestos
What is the point of manifestos, whether for education or any other policy area? Are they even worth the paper they’re written on given that we are fairly desensitised to parties straying from their election pledges in the name of … Continue reading
How can we reduce educational inequality?
Meeting organised by “working towards a national campaign for education” at the Mechanics Institute, Manchester on 23rd September 2014 during the Labour Party conference. Many thanks to Sarah Williams for her work in organising and promoting this meeting. Speakers: David … Continue reading
The forgotten 50% need a one nation education system.
A dialogue between Simplex and Sapiens, two education policy commentators: Simplex: You don’t need to be a historian to know the value of education. Sapiens: And history shows that we cannot achieve ‘one nation’ goals with ‘two nation’ policies. Sim: No … Continue reading
Market madness #6 Students as commodities: premium, discount and remaindered
Enrolment is always a challenge. We come back from our holidays to an empty college. Like someone organising an open house, we’ve stocked up on a range of snacks and drinks for our guests but we can’t really be sure … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Education policy
Tagged 18 year olds, aspiration tax, Colleges, commodity, competition, consumer, Education, marketisation, Post-16 funding, tertiary education, young people
1 Comment
London loses out in Headteacher Board elections
There was a national election before the summer to “improve the education of pupils across England” and “shape the future of the education system”. Missed it? You might be forgiven for this because only academy headteachers had a vote. Also, … Continue reading
Posted in Education, Education policy
Tagged Democracy, Education, elections, England, Headteacher boards, London, Regional School Commissioners
Leave a comment
Finding Labour’s Education Mojo
Less than a year before the general election, has the Labour Party developed winning education policies? Tristram Hunt’s latest speech ‘The Choice in Education’ was a bit like a pre-tour band rehearsal. A range of material was tried out, some … Continue reading
Can we celebrate success without rewriting history?
The headteacher of the Newham-based 16-18 free school; London Academy of Excellence (LAE) in commenting on their A-level results to the Guardian last Thursday was quoted as saying: “In Newham, there were hundreds and thousands of young people who wanted … Continue reading
Market madness #4 A good system can help schools improve
A series of short posts about the marketisation of public education: #4 A good system can help schools improve. Whenever I am asked to explain English secondary education to foreign visitors I usually start by saying that there is no … Continue reading
Eddie Playfair 