The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the system of school examinations into sharp focus.1 The examination season for A levels and GCSEs was cancelled over two consecutive summers in 2020 and 2021.2 In both years, examinations were replaced by teacher-assessed grades—but… Continue Reading
In February to March 2018, tens of thousands of university workers in the University and College Union (UCU) at 65 institutions in higher education took 14 days of strike action, in what was the biggest universities strike ever. The strike… Continue Reading
A review of Harold Rosen, Writings on Life, Language and Learning, 1958-2008 (edited and with an introduction by John Richmond) (UCL Institute of Education Press, 2017), £24.99. To begin on a personal note, I met Harold Rosen for the first… Continue Reading
A review of Grant Banfield, Critical Realism for Marxist Sociology of Education (Routledge, 2016), £95 Marxists are interested in the role education and schooling play in history and revolution. But classical Marxist studies in the sociology of education have remained… Continue Reading
How do we assess our education system? One way is to measure the extent to which that system is producing the skilled personnel required by the capitalist state in order to determine the cost effectiveness and efficiency of the system.1… Continue Reading
Across the world, the culture of testing and monitoring the performance of children in school at every level is becoming ubiquitous and deeply entrenched. Pasi Sahlberg has famously identified such standardised testing as the third pillar of the Global Education… Continue Reading
Is Michael Gove simply mad? Is he a vain loose cannon who was given the education ship’s wheel by captain David Cameron in June 2010?1 He is certainly derided as being professionally unqualified for his job by teachers and lecturers.… Continue Reading
“The moment I understand history as possibility, I must also understand education in different way”.1 The huge student protests over tuition fees and the Educational Maintenance Allowance beginning in November 2010 were an inspirational challenge to the coalition government’s far-reaching… Continue Reading
Capitalism has always had a problem with education. Since the Industrial Revolution, the ruling class’s need to increase the skills of future workers has been contradicted by its fear of them becoming articulate, knowledgeable and independent-minded. Hannah Moore, religious philanthropist… Continue Reading