ABSTRACT
Education is a political activity. Which subjects or areas of learning should be included in
the school curriculum, and what these subjects might be about, has always been a matter of
convincing whoever has authority and control, whether in schools, governments or other
interest parties. There is rarely agreement. Inevitably, education is controversial. Schooling
is claimed to be about empowering children, teachers and society (Woodhead, 2010), but
there may be different intentions at work among these dimensions. Education is not and
cannot be outside the interests of those who wield power and the purse strings, whether tax-
payers approve of or desire to challenge the purposes laid out for education and the school
curriculum by politicians. Schooling is never a neutral activity. Notions of behaviour are
value-laden, just as is the specification of content in curriculum subjects and how it is inter-
preted. Perspectives on children and children’s roles in their education are also varied and
influence the values of schools and teaching in them. Education is a social event loosely or
closely determined by those in political power, as they prefer, desire or consider. Politicians
may occasionally be benign but, more often than not, they wish to influence overarching
social outcomes, be they about a more equal society or focused on children as future
Introduction
Education is a political activity. Which subjects or areas of learning should be included in
the school curriculum, and what these subjects might be about, has always been a matter of
convincing whoever has authority and control, whether in schools, governments or other
interest parties. There is rarely agreement. Inevitably, education is controversial. Schooling
is claimed to be about empowering children, teachers and society (Woodhead, 2010), but
there ay be different intentions at work among these dimensions. Education is not and
cannot be outside the interests of those who wield power and the purse strings, whether tax-
payers approve of or desire to challenge the purposes laid out for education and the school
curriculum by politicians. Schooling is never a neutral activity. Notions of behaviour are
value-laden, just as is the specification of content in curriculum subjects and how it is inter-
preted. Perspectives on children and children’s roles in their education are also varied and
influence the values of schools and teaching in them. Education is a social event loosely or
closely determined by those in political power, as they prefer, desire or consider. Politicians
may occasionally be benign but, more often than not, they wish to influence overarching
social outcomes, be they about a more equal society or focused on children as future
Si on Catling
economic units and outputs, fitted for various levels of work. Education can be forward
looking or regressive. It can be a shared learning journey or a matter in which children
must succeed, or not, subserviently, in what is required of them. All education is based in
and inducts children, one way or the other, into value systems. This is my setting. I now
add a context, about perspectives on children and childhood.
