ABSTRACT
Whether we are considering the primary sector, the secondary schools or the universities and higher and further education, no issue engendered more interest and controversy during the period under review than the struggle for control of the curriculum. It was a struggle which took on slightly different forms in each sector, but in which the central controversy was remarkably similar. Across the education system, it was the power of the professionals to define their own working practices which came under increasing attack and was steadily eroded. This chapter is an attempt to describe that contest and to show its significance in the context of the central argument of this book.
