ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers us one of the most up to date accounts of educational reform in the complex nation state of Belgium. It reviews Vernon Mallinson's thesis of the Western European idea in education. The book shows from his study of other countries in Western Europe that their success has been even more limited. It provides a pessimistic, but realistic, view in the hope, as, he says, that "one of the failures of education may nevertheless stimulate fresh efforts to realise the ideal". The book discusses that for too long geography has been both misunderstood by non-geographers and that it is impact on educational planning and provision has too easily been ignored. It looks at the impact of demographic, socio-economic and political changes on educational provision.