‘Beyond the present and the particular’

This chapter compares and contrasts two seminal texts, written thirty years apart, that develop strong arguments that a particular form of liberal education should be offered to all students in state education during the years of compulsory schooling. The books in question are Charles Bailey’s (1984) Beyond the Present and the Particular: A Theory of Liberal Education, and Michael Young et al.’s (2014) Knowledge and the Future School: Curriculum and Social Justice. The chapter identifies key similarities between the arguments of the two texts. It then proceeds to explore some important differences - notably those relating to the basic justifications offered by the two accounts, their proposals for the content of the curriculum, and issues connected with teacher accountability and the de-professionalization of teachers. The chapter concludes with a somewhat pessimistic analysis of a range of obstacles to realising either of these visions of liberal education in contemporary English schools.