The proposed creation of a National Education Service (NES) for England offers us the possibility of a decisive break from the market paradigm, where education is seen as a commodity in mainly economic terms and where individual and institutional competition are regarded as the drivers of improvement. Is the advocacy of an NES by the Labour Party…

This article assesses the rates of third-level degree obtainment amongst Republic of Ireland-born football migrants who played league football in England in the period from 1945 until 2010. It will illustrate that despite a general widening of access and participation at university level in the Republic of Ireland in the late twentieth century,…

The Covid-19 pandemic has created global disruption in education. It has served to highlight pre-existing inequalities, at the same time as it has stimulated new forms of educational provision, notably 'online learning'. This article focuses on the debates and conflicts provoked by the pandemic's impact on schooling in England. It aims to show how…

This article aims to demonstrate the hazards of an education system controlled by any one group -- in this case, governments -- by examining the recent drive for the academisation of English state schools. This article highlights the need for education's independence from political control. The once 'secret garden' of the curriculum is now firmly…

This paper focuses on British news reports on the Mandarin Excellence Programme carried out in England by educational institutions at various levels. This research systematically examines the ways in which the learning and teaching of Mandarin Chinese is portrayed as important in English secondary schools due to globalisation and economic demands…

This article offers an early assessment of the extent and scope of participation by higher education institutions (HEIs) in Degree Apprenticeship (DA) provision for meeting the broader workforce development objectives of the UK Government. While the take-up of DAs by HEIs and businesses has been undeniably lower than the publicly declared…

Increasing reliance on market mechanisms in higher education is analysed both as one of the approaches to steering as well as in relation to the consequences of markets for quality and accessibility of higher education. This article goes beyond the normative considerations of market elements as inherently good or bad and the economic theory-guided…

The crisis in teacher supply points to fundamental problems in the way teachers in England experience their work. In this contribution to debates about a National Education Service (NES) the author argues that a Labour government must be prepared to radically rethink how it engages with the teaching profession. The challenge is to shift from a…

Throughout the 1980s and 90s there was international interest in the UK's extensive experience (which began in the 1970s) with measures to alleviate youth unemployment. Today the UK attracts international attention on account of its low rates of youth unemployment and NEET, its (still) relatively rapid education-to-work transitions, and (according…

This paper explores legislative provision and pre-school education policy in England over the course of the twentieth century. The paper argues that there has been a significant ideational shift over this period, from a policy focus on nursery education for poor children to universal early childhood education. Not only have ideas changed but…

In this paper, we aim to advance the understanding of the institutional mechanisms that have shaped the teacher education environment in England over the last forty years. Based on the analyses of policy documents and elite interviews rooted in a neo-institutionalist analytical framework, we argue that the changes from a laissez-faire policy in…

This essay explores some of the problems that emerge from the imposition of a very narrow conception of the English literary heritage on pupils across England. It considers the role of government and school policy -- and of teachers and pupils -- in mediating set texts, and the ways in which problematic aspects of these texts are questioned and…

Drawing on data collected in two stages this paper analyses the inclusive practice a college of Further and Higher Education in the North West of England. Thoughts and experiences were sought through the creation of analytical auto ethnography alongside in depth interviews with key actors. Research focused on the historical development of…

The Diversity in Teacher Education (DiTE) research programme is the first attempt to chronicle the origins, character and effects of different ways of training teachers in England since the influential Modes of Teacher Education project in the 1990s. Informed by DiTE's large-scale quantitative research and its smaller-scale qualitative studies,…

At every stage since the start of the pandemic, decisions across education and care have been informed by the scientific and medical evidence -- both on the risks of COVID-19 infection, transmission and illness, and on the known risks to children and young people not attending school and college -- balancing public health and education…