ABSTRACT
When we read about, or, in some cases, infer the existence of, fierce and farreaching debates about educational policy, whether taking place in Parliament, in the DfEE (Department for Education and Employment), recently renamed the DFES (Department for Education and Skills) in state agencies such as OFSTED (Office for Standards in Education) or the TTA (Teaching Training Agency), in the Education Committee of a local authority, or in the governing body of a school, we become acutely aware of widely differing conceptions of schooling – and of its precise role in preparing young people to operate effectively within adult society. One of the main arguments underpinning all the chapters in this book is that educational policy making, at all levels, is profoundly influenced both by what has happened in past decades and by contemporary debates about the exact relationship between schooling and society. At the classroom level, teachers are in the difficult position of having to constantly rethink and reconfigure their role in the light of fresh demands being made upon them by parents, governors, local community leaders and national politicians.
