A Century of Education (edited by Richard Aldrich, RoutledgeFalmer pound;22.99) sets out to provide an overview of the role and nature of education in 20th-century Britain: no small task, in the compass of a crisp 200 pages.
Its organisation is by topic, and 10 chapters deal in turn with primary education, secondary education, further and higher education, governance, teachers, pupils, special educational needs, curriculum and examinations.
They follow a common format. Each begins with an overview of the situation at the turn of the 20th century, followed by a summary of what was happening in 1900. Then each contains a longer central section on “change and continuities”, a brief conclusion and a guide to further reading.
The format poses some editorial problems. Each contributor is left to decidenbsp;the balance between information and interpretation. Peter Cunningham, writing on primary education, leans one way; Gary McCulloch, on secondary education (“widely perceived by 2000 to be in a state of chaos”), leans the other.
A second difficulty is repetition. There is inevitable overlap across chapters: the same landmarks reappear and are frequently re-described. Cross-references and a fuller index would have been helpful.
More problematic are the omissions. That is partly a matter of perspective. There is no mention, for example, in the chapter that deals with LEAs and government, of inspirational giants such as the West Riding’s Alec Clegg or Birmingham’s Tim Brighouse - but space is found for the Ridings school and Hackney Downs. Is this a question of balance, or a tacit acknowledgement that media perceptions are now as powerful as politics in shaping educational policy?
Other gaps stem from the format. There is nothing, except by implication, on the way that the independent sector has been able to shape, for much of the century, perceptions and policies. In education, letting the best become the enemy of the good has been a very English disease. The 40-year struggle to broaden A-levels (not mentioned here) reflects abiding tensions in this area.
- Picture: the Ridings school
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