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Free schools were a flagship policy of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition (2010-15), aligned with the broader academisation programme, yet both consolidating and transcending New Labour's educational narrative between 1997 and 2010. Driven by political 'modernisers' such as Prime Minister David Cameron and his Education Secretary Michael Gove, these schools were framed as an innovative and revitalised educational policy approach, aspiring to eclipse previous 'failed' policies of both left and right. They proposed greater autonomy and liberation from statist bureaucracy, incorporating non-state bodies as providers, while remaining within the broader state educational structure. Primarily exported from Scandinavia as 'all-ability' schools, and with a distinctive autonomous and communitarian element, yet analysis and measurement of the impact of free schools both internationally and domestically has since been mixed. The article seeks (with the benefit of added hindsight and perspective) to focus on the circumstances in which this policy was implemented from 2010, assessing various challenges it faced within a coalition government environment, while ultimately analysing its overall impact on the English educational system in subsequent years.

Teachers in Estonia are working in a tense environment of conflicting expectations which, on the one hand, involves a neoliberal approach to standards and, on the other, the humanistic values of education and well-being of students. The purpose of the study was to identify the factors of school climate which ensure both the job satisfaction of teachers and the satisfaction of students, and to analyse the impact of these factors on the teacher-student relationship. The findings are based on the results of interviews with teachers (n=40) and students (n=39) and the results of student questionnaires (n=139) conducted in four schools. The teachers and students who were satisfied with the school and their job perceived the teacher-student relationship through the following aspects: the potential of students, openness to knowledge, the recognition of personal qualities, equal treatment and taking students into account. Despite the external turbulence in the Estonian school system, all schools still have the autonomy to transform their school into an oasis where all parties feel satisfied.

Critical pedagogues advocate a constructivist approach to learning emphasising the self-directed construction of knowledge from the learners' experiences while also expecting students to develop an explicit critique of the social order. However, the use of a constructivist approach for the pursuit of explicit ideological goals leaves educators with a dilemma: what happens when students' reflections don't lead them to the anti-oppressive conclusions teachers desire? Using comparative historical archival methods and oral history interviews, this study interrogates how teachers and students navigated this paradox in the Berkeley Experimental Schools Project (1968-1975), a public educational programme that sought to actualise the goals of both the Free School and Black Power movements. This study sheds light on this dilemma with particular clarity because the Free Schools represent one of the U.S.' most radical experiments in constructivist pedagogy, and the Black Power movement one of our most heightened efforts to challenge systemic oppression. In demonstrating that in Berkeley, it was easier to build self-directed inquiry on a foundation of explicit critique than to build anti-racism on a foundation of free inquiry, this study elucidates tensions at the heart of critical pedagogy, social justice education, and curriculum theory.

This article uses oral history, archival material, and published primary sources to examine the competing conceptions of "innovation" at work in the creation and operation of the West Philadelphia Community Free School (WPCFS) from 1969 to 1978. One of the longest-running initiatives in the School District of Philadelphia's experimental Office of Innovative Programs, the WPCFS stood at the crossroads of conflicting imperatives for "innovation." These included: (1) institutional interests in advancing "humanizing" pedagogy; (2) Black activists' interests in operating a community-controlled school for students of color in West Philadelphia; and (3) teachers' interests in balancing their commitments to "humanizing" instruction and a surrounding community with different educational priorities. We highlight two instances where the frictions between these uses of "innovation" became pronounced in the WPCFS--debates over "free time" and the 1973 teachers' strike. These incidents clarify how the burden of reconciling opposing innovations fell unevenly on the teachers and community members--often in ways that pitted the groups against one another--and exacerbated raced and classed inequalities in the school and district. While the account focuses on the 1960-1970s, we suggest that the WPCFS is relevant for us today, offering insights for the present into the longer discursive history of "innovation" as a lever for school reform, and into its impacts on educational equity.

As public education faces multiple issues, including the surfacing of children's struggles in society and the formation of capabilities suited to the times, free schools are tasked with expectations for their role as a supplement to public education, leading to a change in the onetime structure of opposition. However, attention must be paid to the risk of forcing free schools into the position of troubleshooters for the issues in public education, given that their position in regard to school education remains unbalanced. Will the Act on Securing Educational Opportunities be able to bring about a "cultural/symbolic revolution" in public education? [This article was originally published, in Japanese, in "Kyoikugaku Kenkyu" ("The Japanese Journal of Educational Research") v85 n2 2018. It was translated by Nadezhda Murray.]

This paper aims to examine the academic significance of the concept of "ibasho" (a place or community one feels at home), which emerged from the problem of truancy in Japanese society in the 1980s. Free schools were created as "places ibasho" for truant children. In the field of youth work, group-work-based youth organizations and youth centers were no longer attracting young people to these organizations. In 1992, the Ministry of Education issued a report on truancy, proposing to make schools "ibasho" for children. Widely studied in psychology, sociology, and architecture, the concept of "ibasho" has three elements: a place where one can feel safe, good relationships, and time factor. In order to clarify the concept of "ibasho," a comparative study was conducted with the theories of human needs and identity. "Ibasho" is a refuge for the socially oppressed and a foundation for empowerment that enables them to transform society. Therefore, the theory of "ibasho" has been applied beyond youth issues to the fields of social welfare, gender, and community development. Finally, "ibasho" can contribute to social inclusion not only in Japan but also worldwide.

This research looked at the management of identity change within Physical Education and School Sport (PESS) at one of the first Free schools in England. Opened as a new institution within an unfamiliar setting, the school had to contend with limited resources for an ambitious programme based upon a full complement of examination courses and an emphasis on prestigious team sports using a traditional public-school model. A single case study methodology revealed that subsequent changes in identity stemmed from staffing issues, alongside a shift in personal philosophies towards a more inclusive ideology. Both senior management and middle management agreed that PESS needed to offer more sports to more pupils while still contributing towards the school's "knowledge rich" achievement-based ethos. Using Goffman's concept of "impression management", changes are explained by the analysis of a team "performance" communication to parents, identified by interviewees as key policy actors in the life of the school. This approach has been successful in justifying change, a finding that will help to understand the extent to which parental expectations are managed at Free schools. However, elements of traditionalism remain within the school's games-based PESS programme and possibilities for innovation are interpreted by policy actors as necessitating changes in content rather than within pedagogy or curriculum design. Recommendations for future study include the need to fully understand the freedoms associated with Free schools, particularly expectations for curriculum innovation.

In 1940, John and Morag Aitkenhead set up Kilquhanity School in rural Galloway, inspired by the writings of A.S. Neill and the practices at Summerhill School. In 1962, Aitkenhead wrote that he had swallowed 'hook, line and sinker' Neill's theories and that 'but for him and his example, there could never have been this free school in Scotland'. Historians and commentators have tended to share his view, for example, describing Aitkenhead as a 'disciple' of Neill and Kilquhanity as an 'approximate' of Summerhill with its weekly meeting, informality of relations between adults and children and a valuing of freedom and happiness over academic achievement. However, this article, drawing on primary research with ex-pupils and staff, uncovers significant differences of philosophy and practice between the two schools, particularly in relation to pupils' contribution to the Kilquhanity School community through the daily practice of 'useful work'. These differences raise questions about the positioning of Kilquhanity as simply a less well-known and less radical 'Summerhill in Scotland' and expose an often neglected fault line within the progressive and radical movements with which both schools are associated.

This article is based on a PhD research project at the University of Birmingham. It examines the intersection between official descriptions of the post-2010 free school programme and the actual experiences of individuals who opened such schools. The tensions between them are located within the control exerted by central government over school characteristics, even within an environment described as 'free'.

The opening of new state schools by non-state actors has intensified debates about social selection and inequality in quasi-markets. This article examines the case of England, where the government allows anyone to apply to open a new 'free school', arguing this will improve social equity. Using data from the National Pupil Database for all 325 free schools established between 2011/12 and 2015/16, we analyse whether the students attending free schools are representative of their local neighbourhoods. We develop the first analysis of whether the specifics of who opens and provides a free school impacts on who attends the school. We also analyse whether opening a free school has an impact on neighbouring schools. We find that free schools are located in areas with above-average deprivation but admit intakes that are more affluent than the average for the neighbourhoods from which they recruit. This is particularly the case for primary free schools, which also recruit students with above-average prior attainment. There is no evidence that free schools become more representative as they admit additional year groups. Significantly, we find that all categories of free school providers have opened schools whose populations are more affluent than their neighbourhoods, with the exception of academy chains. We also find that the opening of a free school leads to a concentrated loss of pupils at the closest school, except in cities, but we do not identify an impact on the student composition of neighbouring schools. Discussing the reasons for this, we conclude that free schools are socially selective and reproduce socio-economic inequalities.

In our response to Tilhou's article published last issue, "The Morning Meeting: Fostering a Participatory Democracy Begins with Youth in Public Education," we share and discuss ethnographic data from Morning Meetings in two U.S. elementary classrooms. We detail ways the democratic potential of Morning Meetings is being cultivated in these classroom communities where one teacher has extended the Responsive Classroom model while the other has developed his own structures. We show how classroom democratic norms are established through humanizing community-building social practices as we argue that Morning Meetings must be understood across time and activities that may have an academic function. [For "The Morning Meeting: Fostering a Participatory Democracy Begins with Youth in Public Education," see EJ1274111.]

This paper is an attempt to define the concept of togetherness from two different angles. Initially, it focuses on how togetherness can be seen in relation to students' participation. A central argument is that more focus on togetherness in school can be of great importance for the motivation. Secondly, the article states that we develop our identity, culture and society through togetherness. The ability to develop society depends on human participation and involvement within communities. Togetherness is therefore not only to be seen as a means, but also as an aim for the school curriculum.

This paper examines how the English educational state has consistently acted to support private schooling in areas where fee-paying schools would be otherwise financially unviable. Educational data on private school participation since the 2008 financial crisis reveals the stark regional divides between London and the South-East of England and the rest of the country. This analysis of contemporary trends is framed within a historical understanding of the spatial dualism of the English middle class in relation to education. The paper traces the policy lineages of the spatial logic of state subsidies for elite models of schooling in northern England, noting the continuity between Direct Grant grammar schools, the Assisted Places scheme and the recent conversion of private schools into state-funded academy or free schools. A review of applications from private schools to become free schools highlights, how differentiated local class structures affect the viability of elite education without state support.

In an article written for The Clearing House in 1974 titled, "Alternative schools: Can they survive?", Gerald Brunetti described features of schools that served as an alternative to mainstream public education. He raised the question of whether or not such schools would continue to exist in the future. A search of the literature reveals a thread that links the alternative schools of the 70s to the schools of choice that are available today, although the social context, educational policies, and funding priorities have changed since then. The issue of inequality in schools that resulted in the alternative schools movement is apparent in today's schools of choice, in particular for communities of color. The recent development of emergency online learning as a result of Covid-19 has shed light on the digital divide and unequal access to technology for culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families. If online learning is to continue as an option for flexible and innovative learning, then issues of equity must be resolved so that school choice in the 21st century is available to all families. [For the reprinted 1974 article, "Alternative Schools: Can They Survive?," see EJ1266735.]

The opponents and proponents of the alternative school movement are equally vociferous in enunciating their positions which leave all of us somewhat confused. Just what is the situation? In this article, Gerald Brunetti, an assistant professor of English education at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, describes the Southeast Alternatives Program of Minneapolis. [This article was originally published in "The Clearing House" 48(5), 1974.]

This paper reports the experiences of staff, parents, governors and students at a secondary free school in the West Midlands of England in relation to the inclusion of students with special educational needs (SEN). The paper is based on a qualitative research project carried out at a school that opened in 2015, with the explicit aim of examining the extent to which it developed as an inclusive school, particularly for children with SEN. In the paper, we draw on the classic distinction between 'education' and 'schooling' to identify tensions and overlaps between process and outcome oriented practices and examine the views of different stakeholders on how such practices impact on inclusion. By focusing on the day-to-day practices of the school and linking them to broader notions of schooling and education, we provide a complementary perspective on the current research on free schools, which is overwhelmingly quantitative and focused on admissions.

There is a faltering sense of democracy in America's current political climate due to polarized opinions about leadership's decisions and antagonistic political parties. John Dewey (1916) proposed that education is the place to foster democracy, as schools can provide a platform to actively engage students in authentic democratic experiences that will empower them to act democratically beyond the walls of the school. The democratic schools that emerged during the Free School Movement of the 1960s and 1970s embody Dewey's philosophy, specifically with the shared governance occurring in their School Meetings. Unfortunately, American public education's present preoccupation with standardization, proficiency scores, and accountability in the name of equality creates an authoritative, top-down approach to teaching and learning that is far removed from the lived experience of democracy. Nevertheless, democratic schools' practices can offer insight for a space emerging in American public schools--the Morning Meeting. This paper proposes that the Morning Meeting is a 21st-century space with great potential to become a platform in public education that fosters participatory, empowered democratic citizens by allowing youth to experience decision making, agency, activism, and the equality that citizens must continually challenge American government to uphold.

This article reports the findings of four separately commissioned evaluations of alternative provision (AP) undertaken in three local authorities in the UK. The evaluations were specifically predicated on the principles of children's rights and used a combination of qualitative research methods and documentary analysis to elicit the experiences of young people in conjunction with the viewpoints of key stakeholders. Data from each evaluation was gathered over a total period of 6 years. The sites and time scales for each evaluation varied from 6-month authority-wide strategic reviews to a 3-year evaluation of an AP free school and an evaluation of pupil referrals in a large school partnership. The evaluations involved 200 participant children and young people, 30 managers and stakeholders, 8 parents of non-attending pupils and local authority officers and school governors. The evaluations report the complexity of needs amongst children and young people; the continuing problem of unsuccessful transitions between key phases/stages of education and the profound consequences of this for young people; assumptions around mainstream reintegration and managed moves; and the curriculum challenges of vocationalism and academic emphasis. While the research data confirms the positive value of multi-agency approaches in AP, it also shows a more recent troubling increase in the number of young people now being referred to AP as a consequence of their exposure to performative school cultures.

This article extends the authors' earlier work (Young & Muller 2013) exploring the concept of 'powerful knowledge'. It first examines some of the origins of the concept and goes on to a brief consideration of how sociology, political theory and economics have traditionally represented 'power' and 'knowledge'. Two key senses of power are identified and two difficulties are next identified: how to retain both senses of power in a satisfactory account of 'powerful knowledge; and how to provide a satisfactory account of the 'power' of knowledge in the humanities. By identifying three meanings of 'powerful knowledge', and making an argument for their interrelationship, the article aims to put the concept on a firmer footing and point to its potential implications for curriculum theory.

This study examines parental choice preferences following the introduction of the Free Schools policy in England. It reports on two phases of data collection: first, the analysis of factors that Free School and non-Free School parents reported as important in informing their choices; and, second, findings from semi-structured interviews with parents of children attending a Free School. The findings show that Free School parents' choices were mostly influenced by similar factors to those of parents elsewhere. There were, however, some notable exceptions, particularly in relation to school size, ethos and curriculum. The analyses also highlight how the lack of information available led parents to use proxies to assess potential academic quality and school suitability for their child. The tensions that exist for parents in exercising choice within this new context and the implications for school intakes and diversity within the system are discussed.

Full Fact is an independent, non-partisan fact-checking charity. A particular focus is the analysis of factual claims in political debate in the UK; for example, fact-checking claims and counterclaims made during Prime Minister's questions. Facts do not appear in a vacuum as they are often used as key elements in an effort to make a coherent argument. This paper describes a number of case histories where facts are disputed, drawn from our election work, to give an overview of the contemporary state of statistical literacy among politicians and the media. Common pitfalls in politicians' claims are set out, along with descriptions of our attempts to close the communication gap between different communities.

This article is a critical poststructuralist analysis of Conservative led free school policy in England focussing on claims made by the New Schools Network and in the 2010 White Paper that free school provision promotes social justice. The article presents an empirical study of an alternative provision free school as a lens through which these claims can be interrogated. Drawing from Foucault's concept of governmentality the article analyses the narratives of teachers working in the school in order to gain insights into the microphysics of the policy rationalities mobilised within the discursive site of the free school and claims that such provision promotes social justice. The teachers interviewed demonstrate a strong alignment to free school policy discourse, but also a blurring of pastoral and disciplinary rationalities expressed in terms of the rehabilitation of students on the educational boundaries of the "normal". The article concludes that the school is a tactical move within neoliberal education policy in which the state responsibilises a new polity of actors, including teachers, sponsors and communities contracting out its interventions in order to govern the ungovernable. The article calls for further empirical research of free school provision in order to contest neoliberal discourses which obfuscate complex systemic failure and the social reality of intergenerational unemployment and disadvantage.

This article examines the background in which enterprises called free schools, as well as complementary educational activities, have taken root in Chile. Two kinds of recently burgeoning free schools are identified; one supplementing regular schooling with a social justice focus, and another that is a fully fledged alternative to other schooling. The history of freedom itself in Chile is explored from a historical perspective, contrasting somewhat with freedom as it is understood in more developed countries. Parallels to Anglophone free schools such as AS Neill's Summerhill are also discussed, as well as the sociopolitical context in which Chilean free schools continue to develop.

In this paper we explore the various spaces and sites through which the figure of the parent is summoned to inhabit and perform market norms and practices in the field of education in England. Since the late 1970s successive governments have called on parents to enact certain duties and obligations in relation to the state. These duties include adopting and internalizing responsibility for all kinds of risks, liabilities and inequities formerly managed by the Keynesian welfare state. In this paper we examine how English parents are compelled to embody certain market norms and practices as they navigate the field of education. Adopting genealogical enquiry and policy discourse analysis as our methodology, we explore how parents across three policy sites or spaces are constructed as objects and purveyors of utility and ancillaries to marketization. This includes a focus on how parents are summoned as (1) consumers or choosers of education services; (2) governors and overseers of schools; and (3) producers and founders of schools.

The United Kingdom's 2010 Academies Act further widened the school and State relationship with free schools, in particular, becoming a model separately identified as endorsing and celebrating the neoliberal ideology of competition informed by market principles. The main features of the model are described and complemented with illustrative evidence from Ofsted inspections and research strongly suggesting that, rather than delivering an informed and inclusive approach as claimed by the government, they in fact are socially divisive and serve only to further accentuate class structures and prejudice. It is concluded that they should be replaced by open access, non-selective and fully State owned and funded approaches based on principles of equality and anti-discrimination.

The extent of between-school segregation, or clustering of disadvantaged students within schools, in England varies depending on the indicator of interest. For example, the trend over time for segregation by student poverty differs from those for ethnicity or special educational need. Additionally the causes of the level of segregation for any indicator will be different from the causes of changes in that level over time. This new paper uses data for all state-funded schools in England from 1989 to 2014 to identify the possible determinants of segregation. The results are summarised for England and its economic regions, and presented in more detail for local authority areas. The long-term underlying level of segregation of each indicator appears to be the outcome of structural and local geographic factors. However, the annual changes in segregation for most indicators can be explained most simply by changes in the prevalence of each indicator. For example, the UK policy of inclusion has considerably increased the number of students with statements of special needs in mainstream schools, and this has resulted, intentionally, in less segregation in terms of this indicator. Segregation by poverty varies at least partly with the economic cycle. Some of the explanatory factors, such as the global economy or the prevalence of specific ethnic minority groups, are not directly under policy-makers' control. This means that it is the more malleable factors leading to the underlying levels of poverty segregation that should be addressed by any state wanting a fair and mixed national school system. In England, these controllable factors include the use of proximity to decide contested places at schools, and school diversity as represented by the growth of Academies and Free Schools, and the continued existence of faith-based and selective schools.

This article presents research relating to the experiences of union and community-based campaigns that have sought to challenge the establishment of academy and free schools in England. Such schools are removed from local government control and are seen as a defining element of the neoliberal restructuring of public education. The research draws on social-movement literature, and particularly mobilization theory, to better understand the dynamics of such campaigns and the contexts in which they can either thrive or wither. In the article, I argue that mobilization theory provides a useful framework for such analysis but that it fails to adequately reflect the importance of individual agency and the role of leadership at a local level. Leadership of such campaigns is often assumed by individuals reluctantly, and often defies traditional descriptions of "leadership," but must be recognized if mobilization theory is to avoid being overly deterministic.

Supporters and critics of free schools in England have had differing expectations about whether free schools would emerge in socially disadvantaged areas, and whether they would become socially selective. We investigate the outcomes, using information from the first three years since the introduction of the first new schools in 2011, drawn from the National Pupil Database. We find that, as policy proposers had expected, free schools have been situated in neighbourhoods that are somewhat above average in terms of the proportions entitled to free school meals, a well-known indicator of social disadvantage. Nevertheless, we also find that the free schools are socially selective within their neighbourhoods. These two effects balance out so that, overall, compared with the average for all England, there are no great differences between the social composition of secondary free schools and that of the national average. However, at primary school level there is evidence that free schools are enrolling children with above average ability. Moreover, there are very substantive differences between the ethnic composition of free schools and other schools. Despite these differences, we find little evidence that the presence of free schools is having an effect on the social composition of intakes to other schools in their neighbourhoods or on segregation in the local authority as a whole. We suggest this may be because there are still too few free schools, with very small cohort sizes, recruiting from very dispersed areas.

This paper explores how "social democratic" Sweden initiated and implemented choice reforms that attracted the interest of "liberal" England. By studying how English media framed and portrayed the Swedish free school "export" from 2008 to 2014, this paper aims to describe and discuss how a market-oriented policy idea, the Swedish system of free schools, is represented as it travels across national contexts. Initially, the Swedish free school model was portrayed as an inspiration for both the English political left and, in particular, the right. However, the national stereotypical representation of Sweden as a legitimate "reference society" was significantly toned down after the 2010 election--often accompanied by references to Sweden's poor performances in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The study shows how Swedish policy "retailers," such as school chain representatives, use the media for further display and reach. In summary, such educational policy retailing, along with media--policy interaction that (re)interprets national stereotypes linked to political legitimation, are important sources for understanding and further exploring international flows and interpretations of market-oriented reform ideas.

The aim of this article is to investigate why Sweden, the epitome of social democracy, has implemented education reforms leading to an extraordinary growth in Free Schools in contrast to liberal England, where Free School policy has been met with enormous resistance. Conventional wisdom would predict the contrary, but as a matter of fact Sweden has bypassed England by far in outsourcing schools to private providers. The comparative argument promulgated in this article is that the combination of three interconnected variables--(1) type of political system, (2) party policy changes along the Left-Right dimension, and (3) the responses of the Left toward market-led reforms of education--are key in explaining this difference in Sweden and England.

This article examines the pattern of placement of students with significant special educational needs at Statement and School Action Plus levels in English secondary schools, comparing sponsored and converter academies, maintained schools and the newly created free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges for 2013 and 2014. The analysis shows a clear pattern of differences: converter academies (which are governed by their own governing body) had significantly lower proportions of students with significant special educational needs overall than maintained (those remaining under local authority management) and sponsored academies (those considered to be weak/failing schools forced to become academies with outside sponsors that oversee the schools). There was a similar pattern of findings for most areas of special educational needs, except visual impairment and autistic spectrum disorder. The pattern of placement of students with Statements in the newly created free schools also showed that some free schools have unusually high proportions of students with special educational needs. These findings are discussed in terms of the increasing stratification of English secondary schools and the potential of small secondary schools to be more inclusive.

In this article, four teachers reflect on what it means to work in a for-profit free school in Sweden. These narratives corroborate concerns about educational inequity and academic standards within the free school system. Equally, they reveal how teachers struggle to negotiate a professional identity within a competitive school market where social ideals and institutional practices often conflict.

The Danish free school tradition has entailed a large degree of associational freedom for non-governmental schools, religious as well as non-religious. Until the late 1990s, the non-governmental schools were under no strict ideological or pedagogical limitations; they could recruit teachers and students according to their own value base, and were given a large state subsidy. From the late 1990s, a number of legislative changes were introduced demanding that non-governmental schools provide civic education and document the academic value of their teaching programmes. The rules concerning the monitoring of schools were also changed. This article analyses the political justification for these changes and asks to what extent the changes have altered the Danish free school tradition.

This article critically examines the Labour Party's policies for local school systems, focusing on its proposals for regional Directors of School Standards, for academies and free schools, and for local democracy, and offers an alternative approach.