ABSTRACT
The outworking of current government policy across the areas of family, community, citizenship and social values represents a reconceptualisation of the relationship between government and the governed. Historically education has been one of several mechanisms for social reform with varying idealisms emphasising ‘citizenship’, ‘social service’ and ‘character’ (Harris, 1992). Examples of these are the education reports and policy which followed the two world wars or periods of economic depression and social unrest. The Newbolt Report (HMSO, 1921) looked into the teaching of English, both language and literature, and its role in forming cultural knowledge and experience. English language was seen as a means of ‘saving the nation’s children from poor speech habits’ (Beverton, 2001: 128) and of finding ‘a bridge across the chasms which now divide us’ (HMSO, 1921, cited in Beverton, 2001: 129). The Butler Education Act (1944) divided children according to the type of education supposedly best suited to their future roles in the workplace: grammar school, technical school or secondary modern. Callaghan’s Ruskin Speech (1976) questioned the progressive teaching methods in primary schools and demanded a closer link between the aims of education and the needs of industry. Similarly, the 1988 Education Act further tightened the link between education and work by introducing a national curriculum of skills and knowledge deemed essential for the economic future of the nation (Coulby, 2000).
