Search

A. H. Halsey has been a professorial fellow (now emeritus) at Nuffield College in Oxford University since his appointment in 1962 as Director of Oxford’s Department of Social and Administrative Studies. This paper explores his contribution to education throughout his career, as an academic and as a national and international policy advisor, and the interface between these two. Halsey worked in what he termed the ‘political arithmetic’ tradition throughout his career, with the dual tasks of documenting the state of society, and addressing social and political issues through ‘experimental social administration’, that is the field testing of social innovation and social policy in advance of national implementation. The paper focuses on Halsey’s ‘activist’ role in policy development in the UK and internationally, through his work on educational reform at the OECD and as research advisor to Crosland at the DES with the introduction of comprehensive schooling in the UK and in particular the Educational Priority Areas (EPA) programme, and traces through the impact of his work. His major contribution as one of the leading sociologists of education in the second half of the 20 th century is also discussed, but the wider impact of this aspect of his work requires a much more extensive assessment than is possible in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study considers the influence on British education (particularly schools) of Alan Bullock, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University from 1969 to 1973 and distinguished contemporary historian. It quotes extensively from Bullock’s own writings, including his developing personal views on education, and reflections on his own experiences. Following a brief biographical section, the paper reviews his work as chair of Government committees and advisory bodies, notably the Schools Council and the eponymous ‘Bullock Committee’ to consider all aspects of the teaching of English. These experiences contributed to his increasing disillusion with formal political power structures as a means of bringing about social change. I examine Bullock’s long period as a dominant figure in the administration of the University, and the consequences for schools of the changes which occurred over that time, especially the move towards admissions policies based almost entirely upon academic merit, and towards becoming a leading scientific university. St Catherine’s College, which he founded, played a significant part in these changes. Bullock’s personal views on the need to offer in schools a broader education, which would be attractive to young people searching for values of their own, were developed in his later writings and are briefly summarised. The paper speculates that he would not have been happy with the competitive and measurement-oriented system of today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study situates Green’s educational philosophy and practice in the context of his overall approach to philosophy. In Green’s view, education should aim at the realisation of the common good, but what Green means by this term is closely connected to his views on human nature, ethical endeavour and indeed the evolution of human history. These ideas are central to his main philosophical works. For Green the common good is to be found in the achievement of qualities of mind or character which involve the individual making the best of himself/herself. The content of education and particularly the development of reason assist centrally in this process. Access to resources and education are important conditions for achieving the common good, but since they involve scarce resources and competition for them, they are not part of the common good as such. The paper goes on to link these ideas with Green’s account of citizenship and his involvement with school and university education in Oxford. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the methods by which candidates are selected for the Oxford Medical School in the light of the literature on assessment in general and candidate selection in particular. We review changes in the process that attempt to capture the best of evidence-supported practice while preserving or enhancing the features identified as being peculiar strengths of the Oxford learning environment. These changes aim to improve fairness, reliability and validity, while permitting candidate-specific approaches that allow for differences of prior experience and opportunity. Over the last three years, the outcome has been a marked convergence between the approaches to selection in Oxford with commonly accepted standards of assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]