EDUCATIONAL POLICY AND BRITISH IDENTITY FORMATION AT THE NATIONAL OUTSKIRTS

Abstract

Addressing historical cases has not only academic but also political significance, especially if the current agenda is largely determined by the rhetoric and experience of conflicts rooted in history. In this regard, the article focuses on the nature, forms and consequences of British educational policy on the national outskirts in Modern times in the formation of British identity, which supported the practice of national and state building at the ideological level both within the United Kingdom and within the British Empire. Specific historical and contemporary examples demonstrate the possibilities and limitations of educational policy as a humanitarian technology for strengthening the ideological and rhetorical foundations of Great Britain as a multinational and complex public entity. The study focuses on the Scottish case which has the deepest historically roots; its analysis allows a more detailed study of the relationship between the educational strategies of the authorities in the past and their consequences in the present, taking into account the prospects for a second referendum on Scottish independence in the context of Britain’s exit from the European Union.