Education And The Labour Government

This book presents a valuable and authoritative evaluation of the real impact Labour’s two terms have had on the British education system. On the 1st May 1997 the British electorate witnessed a watershed moment. After an eighteen year Conservative rule, a New Labour government took office. When asked what his top three priorities were for the first term, Tony Blair stated that they would be ‘education, education, education.’ This book questions the extent to which the policy has met the rhetoric; examining Labour’s education policy, practice and achievements during Blair’s two terms in office. This selection of writings by highly respected academics in this field charts and evaluates the effects of policy changes on the various sectors of the educational system and on the major indicators of inequality. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Oxford Review of Education.

Michael Fielding looks at what the Labour Government has achieved in the last four years with its policy of 'education, education, education'. There has been widespread disappointment in New Labour's education policies, which on the whole have not steered too far wide of those put in place by Margaret Thatcher, including issues of marketisation, testing and performativity. Michael Fielding has called on the key policy thinkers in education to offer their opinions on what has happened in education over the first three to four years of the New Labour Government. Education policy is a controversial subject and with a General Election expected within the next few months, this book will be read widely by people within education, politicians and journalists and by others anxious to get to facts and avoid the spin. The subject matter and the presence of so many high profile educationalists make this an essential read.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book presents a valuable and authoritative evaluation of the real impact Labour’s two terms have had on the British education system. On the 1st May 1997 the British electorate witnessed a watershed moment. After an eighteen year Conservative rule, a New Labour government took office. When asked what his top three priorities were for the first term, Tony Blair stated that they would be ‘education, education, education.’ This book questions the extent to which the policy has met the rhetoric; examining Labour’s education policy, practice and achievements during Blair’s two terms in office. This selection of writings by highly respected academics in this field charts and evaluates the effects of policy changes on the various sectors of the educational system and on the major indicators of inequality. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Oxford Review of Education.

The change process is described in this text examining the historical, social and economic influences on educational policy reform. The three themes covered in this volume are: politics and educational reform; politics into policy and policy implementation; and educational reform phenomena.

This book examines policy making at each level, from perspectives, both inside and outside the state bureaucracy. It has a particular focus on social justice.