Schooling in a democracy : returning education to the public service / Richard Riddell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Riddell, Richard, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Citizenship--Study and teaching.

Citizenship.

Democracy and education.

Education and state.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 152 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Bristol, England : Policy Press, 2023.

Summary:

COVID-19 has widened inequalities in schools and left the future uncertain. Richard Riddell argues that the increasingly narrow focus of education governance has made new thinking impossible and has degraded public life. Nevertheless, he highlights new possibilities for democratic behaviour and the opening up of schooling to all it serves.

Contents:

Front Cover

Schooling in a Democracy: Returning Education to the Public Service

Copyright information

Dedication

Table of contents

Preface and acknowledgements

1 The emptiness of English public policy

English schools policy emerging from a pandemic: the argument

'Academisation' and its effects

Dismantling governance and introducing a more secretive style

The results of policy making of a certain sort

The poverty of policy and policy making: the argument

The need to understand context: restating the need for the local

How the book is organised

2 Where it all begins: the tasks for Education and others

The context for Education: England's structure before and after the pandemic

Detailed needs and consequences

Access to schooling during the first waves of the pandemic

Policy-driven progress in schools for disadvantaged students

Post pandemic

3 Governance change in England

Introduction: The polity around the school

The multi-faceted reduction of local authorities and reform of the 'middle tier'

Academisation after 2010

What was left?

Re-reforming the middle tier more broadly

4 Middle tier functioning, standards, places and school ecosystems

Introduction

Arrangements for reviewing and raising school standards

Nationally directed rapid change to local ecosystems

The development of new 'good' school places

'Middle tier' shape shifting and its effects on local schools ecosystems

5 But society won't wait: the communities around the school and the role of local government

Setting the scene: future possibilities of community-centred work

Local government possibilities

Schooling and local authorities currently

The challenges for councils' overview and leadership in the 2020s

6 More muddle: English Education's unstable assemblage

The centralised drive of policy

Tales of limited power, interest, skills and policy paralysis at the top

The shifting policy market

more muddle

How policy making changed

Attempts to de-centralise

Ofsted and its effects

Summary reflections on the complexities of the wider Educational model

7 Wider parallels: limitations at the top

Private sector parallels

Deliberate absences of structure

The paradoxes of wider English centralisation

8 The construction of central governments that find it all too difficult

Introduction: The paradoxes of expectations

The weakening of national officialdom

How senior officials work and see themselves

Easing expertise and knowledge out of decision making

Not understanding the social basis for policy compromises implementation

The mishandling of COVID-19: failures of state

Failures of state: lessons for governance

9 Re-democratising and re-politicising

Contradictions in policy and the behaviours that result

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 18 Jan 2024).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781447362968

1447362969

9781447362944

1447362942

9781447362951

1447362950

OCLC:

1369641222