Society, Economy, Politics and Education from Wilson to Thatcher

Abstract

Within the field of history of education, Roy Lowe, now Professor of Education at the University of Wales, Swansea and President of the UK History of Education Society, has for many years been a key player at both the national and international levels. As an officer of the International Standing Conference for the History of Education in the 1980s Lowe built upon the foundations laid by his predecessor and mentor, Brian Simon. He and Simon played vital roles in creating international networks that have, undoubtedly, advanced the status and scope of the discipline. Lowe has also raised the profile of British scholars working in the field. During the late 1980s and early 1990s his dynamic editorship rejuvenated the journal History of Education, which became more international and inclusive, both in terms of content and methodology. His own contribution to scholarship has been considerable and wide-ranging. His writings have included historical studies of school architecture (Seaborne & Lowe, 1971 and 1977), English primary and secondary schools (Lowe, 1987a and 1989), English higher education (Lowe, 1987b) and education in the Second World War (1992). Having been one of the first historians to dip a toe into-and then retreat, unimpressed, from-the murky waters of postmodernity (Lowe, 1996), he has now published a sequel to his 1988 study, Education in the Post-War Years (Lowe, 1988). The title of Lowe's latest volume, Schooling and Social Change, is somewhat misleading. The scope of the book extends beyond primary and secondary schooling to consider developments in post-compulsory further and higher education, though adult education is disappointingly overlooked. Against a backdrop that begins with Labour's 1964 election victory under Harold Wilson and ends with Margaret Thatcher's departure from politics in 1990, Lowe's chapters are arranged thematically. This organisational approach sensibly ensures that the book complements, rather than imitates, the fourth and final volume of Brian Simon's classic Studies in the History of Education (Simon, 1991), which is more strictly chronological in approach. In terms of their political perspective, however, both writers emphasise the powerful and enduring influence of social class upon educational opportunity during a period when many hoped that social justice would diminish the influence of elitism. Readers familiar with Education in the Post-War Years will immediately notice that Schooling and Social Change is altogether more argumentative. It also draws upon a