Three Tackling ignorance, promoting social mobility: education policy 1948 and 2008
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Ruth Lupton
Abstract
This chapter examines the way in which education policy has attempted to tackle the evil of ‘ignorance’ and promote social mobility, from the perspectives of policy in 1948 and 2008. It points out that the Butler education reforms were among the first raft of legislation which implemented the post-war Beveridge welfare state, and that these reforms were always an uneasy settlement between the public, private and ‘third’ sector of the welfare state. It discusses how developments in 2008 can be seen as part of the ongoing social and political debate in policy and practice about the role of education in promoting equality of opportunity and social mobility: which of course, is not quite the same as tackling ‘ignorance’ per se.
Abstract
This chapter examines the way in which education policy has attempted to tackle the evil of ‘ignorance’ and promote social mobility, from the perspectives of policy in 1948 and 2008. It points out that the Butler education reforms were among the first raft of legislation which implemented the post-war Beveridge welfare state, and that these reforms were always an uneasy settlement between the public, private and ‘third’ sector of the welfare state. It discusses how developments in 2008 can be seen as part of the ongoing social and political debate in policy and practice about the role of education in promoting equality of opportunity and social mobility: which of course, is not quite the same as tackling ‘ignorance’ per se.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of tables and figures v
- List of contributors vii
- Overview 1
-
Tackling Beveridge’s ‘five evils’, 60 years on
- Freedom from want: 60 years on 11
- Slaying idleness without killing care: a challenge for the British welfare state 29
- Tackling ignorance, promoting social mobility: education policy 1948 and 2008 49
- Beveridge’s giant of disease: from negative to positive welfare? 67
- Tackling squalor? Housing’s contribution to the welfare state 87
- The Poor Law Commission of 1905–09: a view from a century on 109
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Contemporary childcare policy
- Intercountry adoption in Europe 1998–2007: patterns, trends and issues 133
- Family income as a protective factor for child outcomes 167
- Managing shared residence in Britain and France: questioning a default ‘primary carer’ model 197
- Strategic challenges in child welfare services: a comparative study of Australia, England and Sweden 215
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Rescaling social policy
- Governance at a distance? The turn to the local in UK social policy 245
- Spatial rescaling, devolution and the future of social welfare 267
- Rescaling emergent social policies in South East Europe 283
- Index 307
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- List of tables and figures v
- List of contributors vii
- Overview 1
-
Tackling Beveridge’s ‘five evils’, 60 years on
- Freedom from want: 60 years on 11
- Slaying idleness without killing care: a challenge for the British welfare state 29
- Tackling ignorance, promoting social mobility: education policy 1948 and 2008 49
- Beveridge’s giant of disease: from negative to positive welfare? 67
- Tackling squalor? Housing’s contribution to the welfare state 87
- The Poor Law Commission of 1905–09: a view from a century on 109
-
Contemporary childcare policy
- Intercountry adoption in Europe 1998–2007: patterns, trends and issues 133
- Family income as a protective factor for child outcomes 167
- Managing shared residence in Britain and France: questioning a default ‘primary carer’ model 197
- Strategic challenges in child welfare services: a comparative study of Australia, England and Sweden 215
-
Rescaling social policy
- Governance at a distance? The turn to the local in UK social policy 245
- Spatial rescaling, devolution and the future of social welfare 267
- Rescaling emergent social policies in South East Europe 283
- Index 307
