Ideas, Institutions, and the Politics of Schools in Postwar Britain and Germany (Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood)

This book addresses one the most contentious issues of postwar Western Europe, namely the organization of the primary and secondary stages of schooling in state education systems. In examining the politics of continuity and change in postwar schooling in Britain and the Federal Republic Germany, Gregory Baldi seeks to contribute to more general understandings of educations place in the welfare state, the development of social institutions, and the relationship between material and ideational factors in shaping political outcomes over time. Gregory Baldi is Associate Professor of Political Science at Western Illinois University, USA. His work has been published in West European Politics and The British Journal of Politics and International Relations. A masterful account of how the education systems of Britain and Germany have developed in different directions over the past decades, in spite of starting from relatively similar positions after the Second World War. Contributing to a growing dynamic literature exploring the political foundations of education policy, this book adds an innovative and important aspect to the debate by pointing to the central role of discourses and ideas in shaping policy trajectories. A must-read for everybody interested in education and inequality. - Marius R. Busemeyer, University of Konstanz, Germany Elegantly demonstrates the power of ideas and discourses for the politics of education. Gregory Baldi fills an important gap in the literature on the politics of education, which has largely neglected the role of ideas and discourses. The book offers a novel argument and well-researched case studies on school policies in Germany and Britain to show that we cannot understand the politics of education without paying attention to discourses and ideas. The book explains why policy-makers in Britain and Germany chose distinct policy paths, with far-reaching consequences for educational and socio-economic inequality. - Julian Garritzmann, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany Acknowledgments 7 Contents 10 About the Author 11 Abbreviations 12 List of Tables 14 1 Introduction 15 Contemporary Outcomes and Historical Conflicts 19 The Argument in Brief 20 Research Design, Methodology, and Sources 21 Plan of the Book 23 References 28 2 Organizing General Education 33 Introduction 33 General Education in Britain and Germany 34 The German General Education System 35 The British General Education System 41 Why Differentiation Matters: The Effects of School Selection Practices 45 Conclusion 49 References 53 3 Explaining Educational Outcomes 58 Introduction 58 Comparative Perspectives on Education 60 Macro-sociological Perspectives 60 Comparative Welfare State Perspectives 63 Partisan Ideology Perspectives 66 A Fourth Perspective—Ideas and Institutions in History 71 Institutionalisms: Historical and Discursive 71 Explaining General Education in Britain and Germany 77 Education Policy Discourses 78 The Structuring Power of Institutions: Path Dependence, and Temporality 80 Operationalizing the Explanation: Ideas and Historical Process-Tracing 82 Conclusion 87 References 93 4 Britain I: The Tripartite System 102 Introduction 102 The Evolution of General Education, 1870–1939 104 Educational Psychology and the Fixed-Ability Discourse 107 Cyril Burt: Ideational Originator Number One 108 Labour and the Fixed-Ability Discourse 110 The Consultative Committee 113 The Education Act 1944 and the Tripartite System 117 Labour and the Implementation of the Tripartite System, 1945–1951 125 Scotland 129 Conclusion 134 References 141 5 Britain II: Shifting Discourses in Education 145 Equality and Allocation in the Tripartite System 146 Discursive Collapse: The Delegitimizing of Early Selection 148 Challenging the Psychologists: The Dynamic Ability Discourse 149 Ideas and the Central Advisory Council for Education 153 Discursive Change and Partisan Actors 155 Interest Groups and the Organization of General Education 162 Conclusion 164 References 166 6 Britain III: Comprehensive Change 169 Introduction 169 Change at the Local Level: LEAs and Comprehensive Reorganization 170 The National Drive for Comprehensive Schooling 172 Asserting Late Differentiation: The Expansion of Higher Education 180 The Ideology of Expansion: The Robbins Report 184 Achieving Expansion: The Binary System 186 The 1970s: Institutional Change and Critical Responses 188 Conclusion 193 References 196 7 Germany I: The Reconstruction of General Education 199 Introduction 199 The Evolution of German General Education 201 General Education in Weimar 204 The National Socialist Era 1933–1945 205 Reconstituting Education Under Occupation 1945–1949 207 The American Reform Proposals 212 Embedding Differentiation: Institutions and General Education in the FRG 220 Discourses, Institutional Recreation, and Policy Continuity 225 Conclusion 228 References 234 8 Germany II: Historical Legacies and Frozen Discourses 238 Introduction 238 Developments in General Education in the 1950s 240 The West German Fixed Ability Discourse 241 The Fixed Ability Coalition in the FRG 250 Public Opinion and Education 259 The DAEB and the Rahmenplan 262 Conclusion 265 References 270 9 Germany III: The Failure of Reform 274 Introduction 274 The German Dynamic Ability Discourse in Education 275 Partisan Actors and Discursive Change 287 Policy Initiatives and Failures, 1969–1974 294 Conclusion 308 References 311 10 The Contemporary Politics of Schooling 315 Introduction 315 Britain 316 Conservatives: Thatcher and Major 316 New Labour 319 Conservatives Back in Power: Cameron, May, and Johnson 323 Devolution and School Policy 328 Germany 329 Change and Continuity in the 1980s and 1990s 330 The PISA Shock 331 Migrants and the School System 334 The Hamburg Reform Initiative 335 The New Ability Debate in Germany 338 Conclusion 342 References 346 11 Conclusion: The Ideational Logic of Comparative Education 353 Explaining Divergence in British and German General Education 353 Education and Welfare States 357 Institutions and Ideas 358 Conclusion 363 References 363 Index 365