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      The weight of history: structures, patterns and legacies of secondary education in the British Isles, c.1200–c.1980

      research-article
      London Review of Education
      IOE Press
      UK, HISTORICAL, SECONDARY, SCHOOLS, UNIVERSITIES, MERIT
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            Abstract

            This article serves as context for the other papers in this special issue, all of which deal with developments in UK secondary education since c.1980. The paper comprises a review of selected impulses and imperatives that saw the substantial legacy of medieval and humanist schooling in Britain re-shaped, during the period c.1830–c.1980, into the outline of today's landscape of secondary schooling. Three parallel themes are examined: the influence of universities and examinations in framing the secondary curriculum; the role of ideas about ability in shaping the growth of secondary education; and the place of practical/technical education in the secondary school years. By tracing these themes, an account of the changing patterns of institutional provision across the British Isles is provided that, by 1980, had led to a thriving independent sector of schools for a small minority coexisting alongside the massive enterprise of broadly comprehensive, state-funded secondary education in which significant tensions remained between separate 'grammar' and 'upper-elementary' traditions. Conclusions are drawn as to significant aspects of this historic inheritance acting on developments in secondary education in the contemporary era.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            10430
            London Review of Education
            IOE Press
            1474-8460
            01 July 2011
            : 9
            : 2
            : 153-173
            Article
            1474-8460(20110701)9:2L.153;1- s2.phd /ioep/clre/2011/00000009/00000002/art00002
            10.1080/14748460.2011.585875
            0bb75d53-357c-4957-94cd-add99f4d925f
            Copyright @ 2011
            History
            Categories
            Articles

            Education,Assessment, Evaluation & Research methods,Educational research & Statistics,General education
            SECONDARY,UK,MERIT,UNIVERSITIES,SCHOOLS,HISTORICAL

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