Mark Abrams noted the emergence of the teenager as a specific group in post-war Britain. The increasing availability of consumer goods together with favourable employment conditions and increased educational opportunity raised the public profile of ‘the adolescent’.  Yet since the beginning of the century the education of this particular group had attracted the attention of education policy makers. The rationale and content of formal education for the 14-18 year old is still not resolved and this module asks whether there are any lessons to be learned from the past when considering this group. Historians are divided whether the past can be used as an advocate for the present or whether it can only be understood in its own context and this debate underpins the analysis of the primary texts considered.

 

Aims/Learning Outcomes

 

a)     Sustain a critical relationship to ideas relevant in historical approaches to policy making in secondary education

b)    Show an ability to employ theorists critically in relation to issues

c)     Show an ability to use concepts as critical tools in discussing issues and questions as appropriate

d)    Show an ability to employ theoretical perspectives as critical tools

e)     Therein, to develop in their work a critical synthesis informed and deepened by appropriate use of theory as critique

 

Assessment

 

Essay 1  30%  Using one example critically discuss the role of the media in the creation of the ‘teenager’  in post-war Britain (1200-1500 words)

 

Due Tuesday Week 5

 

Essay 2  70%  Critically evaluate the role that a knowledge of the past might play in the planning of secondary education policy today (2000-2500 words)

 

Due Tuesday Week 12

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 1: Introduction: Lessons from the past

 

Secondary education provision in the UK  is changing rapidly, but what are the current priorities for post primary education?    You are not expected to have read anything in advance of the first session but you might like to look over the websites listed below – we will return to them through the module. One of the first acts of the coalition government was to change the organisational structure of education administration,  changing the website overnight from the Department for Schools and Families to the Department for Education http://www.education.gov.uk/

The website also includes the recent schools’  White Paper The Importance of Teaching. https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/CM%207980

Michael Gove brings ‘history’ into the introduction to the White Paper as a way of confirming the significance of education policy

Look at the post 16 policy as well – what are the drivers to curriculum development?

http://www.education.gov.uk/16to19

The history and policy unit was launched on 5^th December 2007.

http://www.historyandpolicy.org/index.html

John Tosh has a thought provoking article posted on the site ‘ Why history matters’ (Look under the research tab and then under policy papers).  In the session we will highlight some of the issues raised by the history and policy unit initiative and review the way that your Education Studies degree has engaged with the idea of history. Inevitably this leads us to consider the definition of what is history and the role of the historian in today’s society.

Should the study of history be made compulsory to age 16?

 

Week 2: The Teenage Consumer

 

Mark Abrams coined the term ‘Teenage Consumer’ in the late 1950s. In this session we consider the idea of ‘Youth’ and the arrival of the ‘teenager’ as a recognisable group. What tensions are there between economic activity and post compulsory education?

 

Essential Reading

Savage, J. (2006) Teenage The Creation of Youth 1875-1945, London: Chatto and Windus, pp.349-465

Osgerby, B. (1998) ‘Teenage Kicks: Youth and Consumption in Post-War Britain’ in Youth in Britain since 1945, Oxford; Blackwell, pp.30-47

 

Week 3: History repeating itself  

 

In this session we consider the debates over the ‘use’ of history and get to grips with the theoretical framework of the module.  What are the duties of the historian? Does the past really repeat itself? Do we simply re-interpret the past to suit our current intentions?

 

Essential reading

Aldrich, R. (2003) ‘The three duties of a historian of education’, History of Education, 32 (2) pp. 133-143

Tosh, J. (1999) ‘History and Social Theory’, The Pursuit of History, Edinburgh: Pearson, pp.134-148.

McCullagh, C.B. (2008) Invitation to historians, Rethinking History, 12 (2) pp.273-279 (online)

 

Week 4: Education and Skills. Education for Life or Earning a Living?

 

The 1870 Education Act established universal state funded elementary education. But what preparation for entry into the adult world did this provide? The debate over the purpose of secondary schooling in Britain has continued since the hotly contested Education Act of 1902. In this session we think about the differences between primary and secondary education and why the elementary all-through school was seen to be inadequate preparation for the young people of the twentieth century

 

Essential reading

Vander Eyken, W. (1973) Education, the Child and Society, 1900-1973, Harmondsworth: Penguin, pp.95-105

Musgrove, F. (1964) Youth and Society, Youth and the Social Order, London: Routledge Kegan Paul, pp. 10-32

 

Week 5: Secondary education for some: The 1902 Act

 

In this session we consider in more detail the way that the 1902 Act has been represented by historians – was it a positive move towards a state system of secondary education or was the destruction of the school boards ‘contrary to the principles of democratic legislation’. The education of the teenager becomes a site of political wrangling and ideological struggle.

 

Essential reading

Robinson, W. (2002) Historiographical reflections on the 1902 Education Act, Oxford Review of Education, 28 (3) pp. 159-172

Simon, B. (1965) Education and The Labour Movement, London: Lawrence and Wishart, pp. 176-186, 235-246

 

Week 6: Revisiting the 1944 Act

 

At level 4 we looked in detail at one of the reports that led to the 1944 Education Act and secondary education for all. In this session we will discuss how the Spens and Hadow Reports built upon their interpretation of the historical development of the education system with reference to the demands of twentieth century society. The idea of adolescence as a specific stage in development affected proposals for the post primary curriculum.

 

Essential Reading

Board of Education (1926) Report of the Consultative Committee on the Education of the Adolescent (The Hadow Report), pp. 70-73, 77-87

 

Board of Education (1938) Report of the Consultative Committee on Secondary education with special reference to grammar schools and technical high school (The Spens Report), pp. 1-2, 58-63, 82-86, 349-368, 371-375

 

 

 

Week 7: The Secondary Modern School

 

The secondary modern schools of the 1950s have been written out of history as a painful memory which condemned the majority of teenagers to boring low paid dead-end jobs. In this session we take a closer look at how party politics entered the debates over secondary education in the 1950s.

 

Essential Reading

Dent, H.C. (1958) Secondary Modern Schools , London: Routledge, Kegan, Paul, pp.3-9, 32-48

 

Week 8: Teenage Consumers. Careers advice and the Youth Employment Service 

 

What affects teenagers’ career choice? Is it gendered or classed? What is the role of the school in encouraging young people to realise their ambitions?

As is clear from the official reports, the role of formal secondary education in preparing young people to enter employment has been contested. In this session we look specifically at the role of the careers officer and the development of the Youth Employment Service in the post-war world. Are the debates over the role of formal education limited to the post-war context or are they relevant to the concerns of employers (and employees) today?

 

Essential Reading

Roberts, K. (1971) From School to Work, A Study of the Youth Employment Service, Newton Abbot: David and Charles, pp. 34-53

 

Week 9:  ‘Citizens of Tomorrow’  and the ‘Young Offender’:  Youth and the Welfare State

 

Current concerns over teenage dropout rates from school run alongside fears over teenage gangs and lawlessness. Yet those who are voicing these fears may have been Teddy Boys, Mods, Rockers or Punks in their youth. Some may have completed two years’ National Service. Or is it different this time around? Does knowledge of teenage rebellion throughout the twentieth indicate that the education of the adolescent requires an ahistorical approach?   

 

Essential Reading

King George’s Jubilee Trust (1955) Citizens of Tomorrow: a study of the influences affecting the upbringing of young people, London: Odhams, pp. 9-20, 34-42

 Fyvel, T.R. ( 1961) The Insecure Offenders,  London: Chatto and Windus, pp. 92-104

 

Week 10: ‘Continuing education’ 15-18 The Crowther Report.

Newsom ‘Half our Future’

Concerns over the education of the adolescent continued in the 1960s as rapid changes in society brought in free love, flower power  and the dominance of a ‘youth culture’. Educationists still concerned themselves with the difficult teenage years and an education that would benefit both the individual and the nation.

 

Essential reading

Ministry of Education, (1959) 15to18 Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) (The Crowther Report), London: HMSO, vol 1 pp.105-132

 

Week 11:  ‘14-19 Education and Skills’ Back to the Future?

 

Recent education policy indicates that young people will remain in full time compulsory education until the age of 18. One of the coalition government’s first moves was to publish an Education White Paper and extend the provision of academies. But what should secondary education look like in 2012?  Do we learn from the lessons of the past and realise the problems inherent in building vocational training into the curriculum at an early age? Or do we abandon our knowledge of past failures and hope that in a different context old ideas may work second (or third) time around

 

Look again at current state of play in the education of 14-19 year olds

 http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/14To19/index.htm

 

And at the now outdated hopes for the diplomas just five years ago

Hodgson, A. & Spours, K. (2007) Specialised diplomas: transforming the 14-19 landscape in England? Journal of Education Policy, 22 (6) pp.657-673

 

Week 12: Conclusion

 

What lessons can we learn from the past? Did the ‘failure’ of the secondary modern schools condemn generations of teenagers to a secondary education which ignored their future role in society? What sort of secondary education do we want for the citizens of the future?