Modernisation, social justice and educational reform in Britain and

Modernisation is an old project and the idea of modernity has had many different meanings, from belief in a ‘grand narrative’ of historical and scientific progress to the critical rejection of social and artistic conventions. ‘Modern’ does not slide along a ruler of time in a single direction but connects to the past as much as to the present. ‘Modern times’ can be over and done with (see Grant, 1998). The meanings and purposes of the project of ‘modernity’ can be economic, political, social, scientific, ethical, sexual, aesthetic and cultural and can be more concerned with what we are than when we are.