ABSTRACT
A study of the literature from the 1970s reveals that preschool education in particular was regarded as the solution to educational disadvantage. In this chapter I have deliberately introduced in quotes many of the terms in frequent use at that time, both in Britain and in the United States. Language was a major justification for the planned expansion in pre-
school education in the 1970s in Britain. To some extent such education was viewed as ‘compensatory’ to give a ‘head start’ to children who were ‘socially disadvantaged’ because of perceived ‘deficient’ language thought to be responsible for later failure in school. Some researchers linked this to a lack of ‘cognitively’ demanding language in their homes, with the use of ‘restricted’ rather than ‘elaborated’ codes. Thus the aim for professionals was to make good the ‘deficiencies of the home’ at an early stage, preferably before entrance to primary school. Little or no attention was directed to possible links between school and its approaches and the differential attainments of children from socalled ‘middle’ and ‘working’ classes, or indeed the increasing gulf in their attainments as they moved through compulsory schooling.
