Secondary Education in a Changing World

1 total work

English Teachers in a Postwar Democracy

by P. Medway, J. Hardcastle, G. Brewis, and D. Crook

Published 10 July 2014

In the twenty years after the Second World War, English society experienced opposing positions, particularly among teachers of English, regarding the education of Britain's youth. Different attitudes to achieving a fully democratic society were explored, whether by cultivating high standards in the ablest students or promoting a common cultural experience across abilities and social classes. The authors have studied in unprecedented detail three London school English departments, one of them an early comprehensive school, using oral history interviews and the collection and analysis of a large body of documents, including teachers' mark books and students' work. This move towards a more inclusive version of English involved not only the teachers in the comprehensive schools, but also some in the grammar schools-shaping the ideas of those who would found a new London English teachers association.