Forty years of Pastoral Care: an appraisal of Michael Marland’s seminal book and its significance for pastoral care in schools

Abstract

Michael Marland’s seminal book: Pastoral Care was published 40 years ago this year. The thesis of the book – that pastoral care is the central task of the school, and must be planned and institutionalized through pastoral roles and structures – is explored against the background of the social, cultural and educational developments taking place in the 1960s and 1970s. Its influence on research and publication in the field is demonstrated in the literature which deals with both the ‘technique’ and ‘critique’ of pastoral care in schools, much of it published in Pastoral Care in Education. Marland’s later writings, especially on the role of the form tutor and the idea of a ‘pastoral curriculum’, the conferences he convened, and his part in the founding of the National Association for Pastoral Care in Education, are seen to be a natural extension of the book’s thesis. Despite the difficulty of measuring the outcomes of educational literature, the article concludes that the significance of Marland’s book and his related activities was substantial, and that the relevance of its underlying values is as great as ever.