Whose School Is It Anyway?: Power and Politics Book

In the 1970s two events in particular, the William Tyndale School and James Callaghan's Ruskin speech, generated extensive media coverage and political activity and because 'watersheds'along the path to political and educational reform. This has shaped the system of school and governments in the 1990s.
This book revisits both Tyndale and Ruskin and examine their legacy. Drawing on contemporary accounts of a number of key individuals, who were involved in those watershed events, it recasts their stories in the light of current changes in education. The book explores the extent to which both these events shifted assumptions about education and provided the rationale for policy changes. It argues that fundamental questions need to be asked about the nature of the reform agenda and in particular, the balance of power. It also places the reform agenda within an international context.

Booknews

Uses the example of events at a London junior high school in the 1970s to explore the powers and responsibilities of all those involved in school governance, including teachers, pupils, parents, politicians, and local officials. Suggests that governments need to create a climate of high expectations and promote learning, rather than direct systems, and that governments' main priorities should be challenging the extremes of social selection and exclusion created by market forces and breaking the link between poverty and educational failure. Distributed by Taylor & Francis. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.