ABSTRACT
Some sociologists have not only been concerned to investigate the relationship between social class and the educational system, but have gone further and participated in the formulation of and, less often, the enactment of policies directed towards reducing inequalities. For example, in the late 1960s A.H. Halsey who had made a major contribution to demonstrating the relationship between social class and educational opportunity (see pp. 193-6) became national director of an action-research programme set up in response to the Plowden Committee’s call for ‘research to discover which of the developments in the educational priority areas have the most constructive effects, so as to assist in planning the longer term programme to follow’. Action-research projects were carried out in five urban areas between 1968 and 1971, and their findings published in a series of books. The material reproduced below is taken from the introductory volume to the series, which analyzes ‘the EPA problem’ and reflects on the work undertaken in relation to pre-schooling, the community school curriculum, and links between the community school, the family and the community. The first passage is a hard-hitting review of past policies and principles used ‘to find a strategy for educational roads to equality’. It asserts firmly that ‘egalitarian policies have failed’ and it outlines how the debate about education and equality has shifted ground over the years. It clearly demonstrates the complex interconnections between political ends and educational means. The second passage outlines the major conclusions of the action-research programme and is curiously optimistic compared with the pessimistic policy analysis presented earlier. In the event, its optimism proved largely misplaced and its initial analysis largely justified. The ‘framework of organization for pre-schooling and community schooling’ which it advocated did not materialize on a national scale.
