ABSTRACT
This chapter is something of an overture to all that follows since all the issues that are explored at length later on are, at least, raised here. I begin with an attempt to summarise the state of the argument so far and I end with a look forward to the content of the following chapters.
Each of the writers featured here, John Haldane, Mike Newby, John White and Stephen Macedo, make recommendations for educational policy that rely significantly upon claims about national or political culture. In exploring their use of cultural references, I will identify some structural similarities in their approach to education that appear to unite ‘liberal’ and ‘communitarian’ writers and which, arguably, dominate educational theorising in general. I link these similarities to a political perspective which is characterised in detail and dubbed ‘social democratic liberalism’.
All three writers have significant things to say about religion and in discussing their views I identify two versions of ‘secularism’, one based upon a commitment to impartiality and another which is hostile to some forms of religion when used uncritically to formulate educational policy.
