The New World of Education

Abstract

The 1930s witnessed the rise of fascist regimes in continental Europe, and a slide into international conflict, and ultimately a second world war. These new threats encouraged educators to find new ways forward as alternatives to fascism that were based on democracy and citizenship. Norwood was closely involved in the suddenly urgent search for a new world of education. He was consistently and strongly antifascist in his outlook, and a supporter of initiatives that were characterized as “progressive.” He continued to find himself much in demand during the 1930s as a keynote speaker at conferences, and as a contributor to publications on a range of topics. These activities afforded him a platform for his ideas even after he had left Harrow for the less prominent position at his old Oxford college. This engaged him in a small elite network of intellectuals, teachers, and academics who were predominantly—if not exclusively—male. Moreover, Norwood was now well known internationally as well as within his own country, and he took advantage of this by being actively involved in conferences in different countries. In 1930, he took part in a delegation to Canada to discuss developments in education. Seven years later, he contributed to a lengthy series of conferences under the auspices of the New Education Fellowship (NEF) that took him to the United States, New Zealand, and Australia. These new developments also had an increasing bearing on his relationship with the public schools. In the 1920s and 1930s, he promoted the establishment of new boarding schools included in a network entitled the “Allied Schools.”