During the past decade there has been a series of radical changes to the educational system of England and Wales. This book argues that any serious study of these changes has to engage with complex questions about the role of education in a modern liberal democracy. Were these educational changes informed by the needs and aspirations of a democratic society? To what extent will they promote democratic values and ideals? These questions can only be adequately addressed by making explicit the political ideas and the underlying philosophical principles that have together shaped the English educational system. To this end, the book provides a selective history of English education which exposes the connections between decisive periods of educational change and the intellectual and political climate in which it occurred. It also connects the educational policies of the 1980s and 90s to the political ideas of the New Right in order to show how they are part of a broader political strategy aimed at reversing the democratic advances achieved through the intellectual and political struggles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book proposes that a democratic educational vision can only effectively be advanced by renewing the 'struggle for democracy' - the historical struggle to create forms of education which will empower all citizens to participate in an open, pluralistic and democratic society.

"There have been a few fine books already on this topic...but damned few, and none with the calm detestation of this one with its long, careful historiography, the noble reclamation of the vocabulary of T H Green and R H Tawney, the steadiness once more to use such terms as equality, dignity, and the good society." - T.E.S. "Whatever the route, the debate Carr & Hartnett wishto promote can be welcomed." - British Educational Research Journal

Anthony Hartnett is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool. His previous publications include: The Social Sciences in Education (1984) and (with Michael Naish) Theory and the Practice of Education (1976) and Education and Society Today (1986). He has been European editor of the Journal of Curriculum Studies and is currently an Executive editor of Curriculum Studies.

Wilfred Carr is Professor of Education at the University of Sheffield. His previous publications include: Quality in Teaching (1989), For Education (1995) and (with Stephen Kemmis) Becoming Critical (1985). He is currently an Executive editor of Curriculum Studies.