Scottish Education Department Research Articles

The Unsatisfactory Medium: the Transition from Mobile Cinema to Television in the Post-war Highlands and Islands

Becky Conekin et al. identify the Queen's Coronation and its mediation by television in 1953 as the defining moment in post-war British modernity (Conekin, Mort, Waters 1999). The population of the Highlands and Islands mostly watched this event on 16mm film, via the mobile cinema shows provided by the Highlands and Islands Film Guild. Film assumed the audio-visual functions of television because the geography of the Highlands and Islands did not readily accommodate television broadcasting. Television arrived slowly and unevenly. This paper traces arrival of television into the Highlands and Islands and the uncertainty over accessibility and quality of reception. It argues that whilst the Scottish Education Department assumed that the mobile cinema service had been succeeded by television; the inherent problems of delivering television enabled the more communal, educative, legitimate and reliable cinema to prevail. This asynchronous relationship compels us to recognise the geography of British modernity. Drawing on archival sources, oral history interviews and media histories, this paper presents an account of the Highland experience of a transition typically aligned with an urban perspective.

The attempt to reform School Councils in the 1980s: a rehearsal for the furore that greeted the proposals for School Boards?

In the light of the Scottish Government’s commitment to the principles enshrined in the Christie Commission and developing approaches worldwide to public administration, this article considers the forces at work and the major arguments for suggesting the need for increased and enhanced participation by parents in educational decision-making and school governance by focusing on the early 1980s. This was another period when participative democracy and partnership between lay-persons and public officials was widely supported at a theoretical level but often met resistance on the ground. An analysis of the responses to the abortive School Council consultative exercise of 1984 conducted by the Scottish Education Department (SED) is offered. The period before the emergence of Michael Forsyth as Education Minister in the Scottish Office in Mrs Thatcher’s era as UK Prime Minister is reviewed. Forsyth’s controversial proposals for the establishment of School Boards that caused such consternation among the educational establishment and parents have subsequently been replaced by Parent Councils.

‘It is Ridiculous that the Borough Librarian of Croydon Should Decide the Policy of the Scottish Education Department’: The Establishment of Scotland’s Second Library School

In the middle of the 1960s, amid concerns about the direction of professional education in Scotland and problems with the number of places available for those to wishing to study librarianship, there emerged a strongly nationalistic debate surrounding proposals to establish a second school of librarianship in Scotland. The process of establishing that second school at Robert Gordon’s Institute of Technology in Aberdeen became protracted and fraught with difficulties. It was characterized by disputes and misunderstandings between the Library Association and the Scottish Library Association. Many of these differences of opinion took on a distinctly nationalistic quality and the debate within the library community at the time can be said to offer wider, allegorical lessons for the changing political landscape between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. This article outlines this debate, principally from the perspective of the members of Scottish librarianship community. It draws extensively on a hitherto private archive of correspondence of those directly involved.

The Scottish Council for Research in Education 1928-2003: a Short History

This article provides a short and accessible account of the whole life-span of The Scottish Council for Research in Education (SRCE), an institution that played a key role in developing educational research in Scotland and setting standards for it. It began through the efforts of many voluntary workers and developed into an organisation operated by professional researchers but governed by a Council representing all aspects of education in the country. Accounts are given of its growth and development, of the policies of each of its six successive directors, of some of its more notable projects, and of some of the factors that contributed to its final decline. The article has drawn on not only published matter but the first-hand knowledge of two “insiders”, J G (Ian) Morris at the Scottish Education Department (SED)’s Research and Intelligence Unit and the present writer at SCRE.

What’s in a vision? Introducing an organisational learning strategy in a local authority’s education service

It is frequently asserted that schools and local authorities should become ‘learning organisations’ as a pre‐condition for school improvement, but there is very little evidence about the specific processes and activities involved in such a transformation. This paper analyses the initial stages of the implementation by a Scottish local authority Education Department of an organisational learning strategy, whose ultimate purpose was to improve pupils’ attainment and achievement by developing the Authority’s collective capacity to learn new ways of meeting their needs. The analysis focuses on some of the processes that, despite a huge literature on the subject of organisational learning and change, have hitherto remained somewhat mysterious. Adopting an analytical framework derived from activity and actor network theory, we explore empirical evidence of the key stages in ‘vision building’, showing how sense‐making was structured and highlighting the processes and activities which constituted the initial stages in learning to learn as an organisation.

‘This Thorniest of Problems’: School Sex Education Policy in Scotland 1939–80

In recent years, the history of sex education policy in twentieth-century Britain, and the sexual discourses it both reflects and reinforces, has attracted increasing attention from a range of disciplines within the humanities and social sciences. Yet, research has primarily focused either on the early decades of the century or on the abrasive social politics of sex education since 1980. There is a dearth of material addressing the intervening years. Moreover, little research has been devoted to the Scottish experience, despite Scotland's distinctive traditions of education and law, as well as arguably a distinctive sexual culture. Drawing on a wide range of governmental archives, this article seeks to rectify these omissions by exploring the impulses and constraints that shaped Scottish school sex education policy in the period 1950-80. First, it examines the nature of the debate surrounding the issue prior to the Second World War. Secondly, it charts the reappraisal of policy in wartime and immediate post-war years in response to the perceived breakdown in moral and sexual standards among the young. Thereafter, the article examines the devolvement of responsibility for school sex education in the 1950s and 1960s to traditional purity and social hygiene organizations-the Alliance-Scottish Council and the Scottish Council for Health Education. The demise of such organizations, and the often conflicting and ineffectual efforts of the Scottish Education Department and Scottish Home and Health Department to address the sex educational needs of a more ‘permissive’ youth culture in the late 1960s and 1970s are then explored. Finally, the implications of the study for an understanding of the relationship of the State to sexual issues in later twentieth-century Scotland are reviewed.

A community work approach in adult education

Adult education needs to adopt a community‐work approach if it is to be effective in reaching people traditionally labelled as ‘non‐participants’. This paper examines the use of community‐work methods to involve sections of the population previously unaffected by adult education provision. The background is the publication in 1975 of the Alexander Report ‐ The Challenge of Change ‐ by the Scottish Education Department. This report stressed the need for a wider section of the population to take up adult education. Tom Lovett's work in Liverpool and Ireland is used as an example of how to reach more people. Projects with a Scottish context underline that the approach cannot be standardized. Finally the ‘success’ of the East End Adult Education Project is attributed to its community‐work approach.

The Placement of Pupils Recorded as Having Special Educational Needs: an analysis of Scottish data, 1986‐1988

Abstract This paper draws upon quantitative and qualitative data gathered in the course of a major research project, funded by the Scottish Education Department (SED), which examined the implementation of the Education (Scotland) Act, 1981. Of particular relevance to this paper is the placement of pupils with significant special educational needs in mainstream settings. Whilst ‘integration’ was not the principal focus of the research, the data set, established over three years, provides some evidence of the extent to which integration policies are being implemented in the 12 island and regional authorities of Scotland. Quantitative data will be presented from the full data set of pupils (n = 2861) for whom Records of Needs [1] were opened in terms of the provisions in the Education (Scotland) Act, 1981. Interview data derived from a key respondent survey will be used to illuminate the patterns and trends discernible in the demographic data. Whereas earlier studies have tended to focus on quantitative anal...

Tests, tasks and Taylorism: a Model T approach to the management of education

In the post‐war period, education policy has attempted to strike a balance between serving the needs of two competing ideals, namely democracy and capitalism. Whenever it serves the latter, it must also seem to serve the former. If not, the policy will be difficult to ‘sell’ on democratic principles. This tactic seems to have been overlooked by the Scottish Education Department in its 1987 consultation paper Curriculum and Assessment in Scotland: a Policy for the 90s. In it the SED has sought to revive the managerial style of entrepreneurial capitalism, namely Taylorism. It has done so, however, hard on the heels of its previous advocacy of human relations management approaches. Only recently, teachers expected to be consulted; now they are to be told and (with the threat of legislation) cajoled. The result is that the SED has lost its legitimacy, and it may face a backlash calling for a move away from the cult of efficiency and enterprise towards a more democratic educational process.

Beyond Collaboration: the management of professional development policy in Scotland, 1979–89

Abstract This paper argues that the Scottish Education Department (SED) has dispensed with its earlier advocacy of human relations management approaches to staff development. The concept of ‘collaboration’, stressed in the National Committee for the In‐service Training of Teachers (NCITT) reports of 1984, is not mentioned in the SED's consultation paper School Teachers’ Professional Development into the 1990s. The period between 1979 and 1984 is analysed briefly. This period was typified by a declared preference for collaborative INSET. Consideration is given to the SED's consultation paper School Teachers’ Professional Development into the 1990s, and the SED's concept of ‘professional development’ is examined. The SED's management ethos as implied in Curriculum and Assessment in Scotland: a policy for the 1990s is incorporated into the analysis.

A review of research on special educational needs in Scotland, 1975‐1985

ABSTRACT In common with many countries, special education in Scotland has come a long way over the past decade. Well‐established policies and practices have been examined and monitored, in order to provide a sound basis for the changes in legislation, organization and training which have been effected over this period. This article reviews research and related developments which were undertaken in Scotland during the period 1975‐1985, and attempts to evaluate these in terms of the extent to which this work has involved teachers and influenced their work in this changing situation. It does so at a number of levels, starting with projects funded and supported by the Scottish Education Department, but also dealing with the range and variety of studies emanating from universities, colleges of education and other professional sources. It draws the conclusion that recent research into special educational needs in Scotland has increased the knowledge and understanding of teachers of pupils with learning difficul...

The Edinburgh intercalated honours BSc in pathology: evaluation of selection methods, undergraduate performance, and postgraduate career.

In a study of 60 students who entered the intercalated honours BSc course in pathology at the University of Edinburgh over 10 years the conventional criteria of academic excellence and motivation were shown to be appropriate for the selection of honours students. When compared with classmates who did not take the intercalated year but who had shown similar high academic ability in the preclinical course the students who had taken the honours BSc did better in the remainder of the undergraduate curriculum. Of 42 honours students, 18 (43%) entered academic careers, particularly in pathology and medicine, but there was no observed tendency for students without honours BSc to do so. Although it is impossible to establish a causal relation between taking the honours course and subsequent academic distinction, the results suggest that the intercalated honours BSc in pathology serves a useful function in introducing able students into academic careers. The findings justify the financial support made available to such students during their intercalated year by the Medical Research Council and the Scottish Education Department.

SED Funding of Educational Research: A View from New St Andrew’s House

This is the edited text of a lecture given by Bill Nicol HMI at the 1984 annual conference of the Scottish Educational Research Association. Its delivery coincided with his retirement from the Scottish Education Department’s Research and Intelligence Unit.

Microcomputers in Scottish Schools—a National Plan

The Background If we were to place countries on a spectrum running through from a tightly-centralised government control of education to a wholly decentralised pattern, Scotland would be towards the decentralised end in most people's assessment. The Scottish Education Department, through its administrative staff and its professional educators in H M Inspectorate, exercises enormous authority and influence, but ultimate responsibility and control of educational provision lies with independent education authorities. A number of centrally-funded but autonomous bodies such as the Consultative Committee on the Curriculum (CCC), its Scottish Curriculum Development Service (SCDS), the Scot-tish Examination Board (SEB).

Primary Education in the Eighties, Committee on Primary Education, Consultative Committee on the Curriculum (Scottish Education Department, 1983) pp. 84, £1.50

Primary Education in the Eighties, Committee on Primary Education, Consultative Committee on the Curriculum (Scottish Education Department, 1983) pp. 84, £1.50

Crossing the Boundaries: New Directions in the Mental Health Services for Children and Young People in Scotland. Report of a Working Group set up by the Mental Disorder Programme Planning Group of the Advisory Council on Social Work and the Scottish Health Service Planning Council. SHHD and the Scottish Education Department. 1983. Pp 133. £6.75.

Crossing the Boundaries: New Directions in the Mental Health Services for Children and Young People in Scotland. Report of a Working Group set up by the Mental Disorder Programme Planning Group of the Advisory Council on Social Work and the Scottish Health Service Planning Council. SHHD and the Scottish Education Department. 1983. Pp 133. £6.75. - Volume 8 Issue 12

Crossing the Boundaries: New Directions in the Mental Health Services for Children and Young People in Scotland: Report of a Working Group set up by the Mental Disorder Programme Planning Group of the Advisory Council on Social Work and the Scottish Health Service Planning Council. SHHD and the Scottish Education Department. 1983. Pp 133. 6.75

Crossing the Boundaries: New Directions in the Mental Health Services for Children and Young People in Scotland: Report of a Working Group set up by the Mental Disorder Programme Planning Group of the Advisory Council on Social Work and the Scottish Health Service Planning Council. SHHD and the Scottish Education Department. 1983. Pp 133. 6.75

Future Demand for Higher Education in Great Britain

Abstract The recent White Paper on The Government's Expenditure Plans 1983/84 to 1985/86 (Cmnd 8789)1 says that "provision for higher education beyond 1985/86 when the age groups will be falling is to be reviewed." This report, which is issued with the agreement of the Scottish Education Department and the Welsh Office, presents the latest projections produced by the Department of Education and Science [DES] of the demand for higher education to the year 2000 in the light of the expected output from schools and colleges of those qualified for entry. The report gives historical series of student numbers, entrants and participation rates and explains the construction of the demand projections. On the basis of recent patterns of demand for higher education and current trends in the proportion of the age group staying on in full-time education after the age of 16, the report suggests that demand for higher education from qualified applicants is likely to be more buoyant than might be assumed from a simple view of the decline in the size of the 18-20 year-old age group. However, if the number of higher education places currently available were to be maintained, the supply of places would, sooner or later, exceed demand.

Course Costing at Colleges of Further Education in Scotland

Abstarct The paper briefly describes the research programme currently being undertaken by the authors for the Scottish Education Department. After a short description of the local authority financed colleges of further education in Scotland, the paper concentrates on a method of allocating teacher costs to courses. Typically over 70 per cent of a course cost is represented by teachers’ salaries. The method is based on class contact hours but recognizes that staff have an administrative and management role as well as teaching responsibilities within a college.

Learning and Teaching in Primary 4 and Primary 7: A Report by HM Inspectors of Schools, Scottish Education Department (HMSO, 1980), pp. 83, £3.50

Learning and Teaching in Primary 4 and Primary 7: A Report by HM Inspectors of Schools, Scottish Education Department (HMSO, 1980), pp. 83, £3.50