Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The period 1900 to 1939 may seem, on the face of it, to have been one of consolidation for the education system in Britain. The previous thirty years had seen the coming of universal elementary schooling in all parts of the British Isles, a restructuring of secondary education, the appearance of new civic universities and the origins of a system of further education as well as a complete overhaul of the administration of education. Similarly, the period following the Second World War was to experience further dramatic change. After 1944 secondary schooling became universal, the university sector as well as further education expanded dramatically and changed almost beyond recognition in character, whilst the administration of education was revamped by the 1944 Education Act. Beyond this, as its economic and social significance became increasingly apparent, education itself became nothing short of a political football before the end of the century.What, then, of the years 1900 to 1939? As will be argued in this chapter, they witnessed equally significant transformations of the education system and the politics of education was no less fiercely contested than had been the case in the late nineteenth century and was to be the case after the Second World War. But what is perhaps most significant is the ways in which educational developments reflected and echoed the social and economic ... log in or subscribe to read full text