Between the 1940s and 1960s across Western Europe a spirit of reform along comprehensive lines manifested itself in secondary education, aiming at a reduction of the existing social inequality of educational chances. These reforms are said to be rooted in new policies and in new approaches in educational studies. This article explores the…

The extent to which the goals and contents of (compulsory) education should to be regulated has been a complicated balancing act in the Netherlands. Against a background of a long-standing statutory tradition of freedom of education, governmental decisions about "what knowledge is of most worth" have been delicate. The purpose of the…

This paper summarizes the main results of a meta-evaluation of innovative education programs in Dutch education. Attention is focused on contextual influences, while a case is made for prudent and feasible ways of "rational reconstruction" and for an acitve evaluation policy aimed at overcoming contextual constraints. (LMO)

Between the years of 1978 and 1987, the Dutch National Institute for Curriculum Development (SLO) developed a core curriculum of objectives and content for a new social and political education curriculum. These new programs were to take effect in the secondary modern schools and lower vocational schools for students age 14-16. The empowering…

Compares the position of ethnic minority languages versus Frisian in Dutch primary schools, and considers the roles of legislation, educational models, minority language usage, language attitudes, pressure groups, teacher quality, instructional materials, and the serious lack of basic research data on the acquisition, use, shift, and loss of…

The history and structure of education in the Netherlands, the relationship of that structure to educational systems in selected other countries, and the current status of educational innovation in the Netherlands are the major topics of this paper. The author discusses briefly the development of national educational policy, the place of private…