Abstract
Many persons have referred to the fact that political education in British schools has been taught mainly in an implicit and indirect fashion.1 The efficacy of this is challenged by the proponents of political education and their aim is to place the teaching of politics in the curriculum on the same basis as the traditional subjects so that it forms an identifiable part of the weekly if not the daily lessons. The Politics Association, through its mouthpiece, the journal Teaching Politics has been pushing this line since its inception in 1969.2 The Association’s efforts have been reinforced by a series of B.B.C. radio programmes that discussed the pitfalls, and more noticeably, the benefits of political education, and the launching of a research project to set up and monitor school-based courses in political education.3 The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the pressures behind this drive to place the teaching of politics in schools on a more formal basis. It is of interest to us because of the very explicit understanding of political education its advocates have been forced to evolve. This contrasts vividly with several of our other chapters which draw out the political implications of education from sociological and economic data. Whereas contemporary educational élites have been concerned with the economic implications of the educational system, this chapter examines one response to the present challenge, so much of which is emerging within the educational institutions, to our established political values.
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Notes and References
E. Simon, ‘The Aims of Education for Citizenship’, in the Association for Education in Citizenship, Education for Citizenship in Secondary Schools (Oxford University Press, 1936) p. 9.
I. Lister, ‘The Aims and Methods of Political Education in Schools’, paper prepared for the Conference on the Development of Democratic Institutions in Europe, April 1976, pp. 1–3;
and D. Heater, ‘A Burgeoning Interest: Political Education in Britain’, in B. Crick and D. Heater, Essays on Political Education (The Falmer Press, 1977 ) pp. 58–78.
This fudging of the issue is illustrated by this quote from Lister’s work: ‘Classroom research into political education programmes suggests that an essential pre-condition for the success of any programme is that it should be planned according to a coherent theory of politics.’ Lister, ‘Aims and Methods’, pp. 4–5. But he provides no evidence as to what his classroom research may be and no inkling as to what ‘coherent theory of politics’ supports his own sponsored political education programmes. For another example of the same point, see G. Mercer, ‘Political Interest among Adolescents: The Influence of Formal Political Education’, Teaching Politics, vol. 11 (1972) p. 13.
M. Oakeshott, ‘Political Education’, in M. Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics: And Other Essays (Basic Books, 1962) pp. 111–36.
B. Crick and I. Lister, Political Literacy, Document No. 2 of a Programme for Political Education (Nov 1974) p. 1.
Ibid. p. 5. See also, B. Crick and I. Lister, A Programme for Political Education: An Explanatory Paper, Document No. I of a Programme for Political Education (Nov 1974) p. 1.
B. Crick, ‘On Bias’, Teaching Politics vol. 1 (1972) pp. 4–5. Note also this quote from Crick and Lister, A Programme for Political Education p. 3: ‘It would, however, be both intellectually and morally wrong to assume that there is a “consensus” in our society about political values(even though there may be a consensus about procedures)’ (our stress).
He has argued that ‘knowledge’ rather than ‘participation’ restrains governments. See, B. Crick, ‘The Introducing of Politics’, in Teaching Politics ed. D. Heater (Methuen, 1969) p. 17.
P. White, ‘Education, Democracy and the Public Interest’, in The Philosophy of Education, ed. R. S. Peters (Oxford University Press, 1973 ) p. 227.
I. Lister, ‘Political Education in the Schools’, New University vol. 3, no. 9 (May, 1969) p. 25.
D. Heater, ‘Politics as a University Discipline and Political Education in the Schools’, Political Quarterly, vol. 40 (1969) pp. 326–7.
B. Crick, ‘Basic Political Concepts and Curriculum Development’, Teaching Politics, vol. 3 (1974) pp. 13–23.
Heater, ‘Political Concepts and the Construction of a Syllabus’, Exeter University Conference on Political Socialisation (1971) p. 4.
H. Entwistle, Political Education in a Democracy (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971) chs 4 and 5.
W. Robson, Politics and Government at Home and Abroad (Allen and Unwin, 1967) p. 40.
L. Freedman, ‘Approaching Politics’, Teaching Politics, vol. 3 (1974) P. 7.
R. Wilkinson, The Prefects: British Leadership and the Public School Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1964); Wakeford, Cloistered Elite; and Weinberg, English Public Schools.
A point made by one of the authors elsewhere. See Tapper, ‘The Limits of Political Education: An Expanding Interest’, Teaching Politics, vol. 4 (1975) pp. 11–14.
See Heater, in Essays on Political Education, p. 70; and D. Heater, ‘Political Education in Schools — The Official Attitude’, Teaching Politics, vol. 1 (1972) p. 29.
With the two strongest but radically different challenges coming from Christopher Jencks and Ivan Illich. See Jencks et al., Inequality; and I. Illich, Deschooling Society (Harper and Row, 1971 ).
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© 1978 Ted Tapper and Brian Salter
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Tapper, T., Salter, B. (1978). Political Education: its Emergence as a Curriculum Innovation. In: Education and the Political Order. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15873-7_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15873-7_4
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