ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at policy and developments in the light of both interpretations, that is, the influence of the established leadership in each age, and the role of individual churchwomen and men in opening up education to women. Women’s invisibility in church affairs reflects an historic undertreatment of their role in Christianity. It is proposed to look at church influence in four main phases: early Christianity, medieval education, Renaissance and Reformation influences and the post-industrial period. Even the School Boards were often dominated by diocesan interests, as were the great commissions of inquiry into the schooling needs of the new industrialisation. The provision, curriculum and style of education has always been determined by the perceptions of those controlling the education system of the social roles for which they are preparing boys and girls respectively. The traditional seven Liberal Arts which were established as the ‘core curriculum’ were to dominate education until post-Reformation reconstruction.
