ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how the context in which 'the Great Debate' on education took place in order to show the extensive growth of right-wing ideas in recent years. It then explains some of the main features of the current crisis in education: the problematic nature of progressivism; the historical origins of discipline and the idea that education has, largely, a disciplinary function; the changes in the labour process and the nature of work that are taking place. Capitalism tries, first, to reduce wages below the value of labour power, and second, to discipline the working class by the intensification of labour. The contradictions within capitalism lead to tendencies which require capital continually to restructure its own relations of production. There is a sense in which the crisis is not only an economic crisis but a crisis of social relations. The educational system is being attacked; the government, the media, and industry are focusing on the shortcomings of teachers and schools.
