England's premier league of public schools, educating less than three thousand boys, started life in medieval times as charity schools for the poor. Closely tied to the Church, they found favour as institutions of social mobility. By the turn of the eighteenth century, vandalism and violence were endemic in many; misrule and abuses so common that…

This article explores feminist interventions in urban school politics. First, it argues that the female contribution was an essential component to politics and policy making in the 120-year period that London had a single education authority. Second, it suggests that these women politicians were advocates of a cultural praxis that involved…

This paper forms part of a recent trend that aims to contribute to the writing of a more inclusive education history sensitive to the operation of gender. The author presents an analysis of educator activists in twentieth-century England that connects, rather than separates, the domains of education, labour history and politics. The paper also…