ABSTRACT
The goals of 'inclusion' which came to dominate educational discussion as the 1990s wore on could not be challenged, of course, and the acceptance of new challenges as girls closed the achievement gap and boys were the next frontier. The focus of Conservative educational policy has been on standards and outputs, which is based on the notion that there has been a 'dumbing down' of traditional content and the evidence of Britain's relative lack of international competitiveness. A more critical assessment of the educational policies of the social democratic era, whilst still offering the prospect that 'another school is possible', can be found in Terry Wrigley's work. The impetus for the change is that economies and societies are changing rapidly 'because of the impact of globalisation and new technology'. Socialist realism will start from the assumption that there is no alternative to the task of building a socialist society.
