Resistance or reform: The politics of comprehensive education 1965-1980 with special reference to conservative controlled local education authorities

Pattison, Mark (1983). Resistance or reform: The politics of comprehensive education 1965-1980 with special reference to conservative controlled local education authorities. PhD thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0000de20

Abstract

Part I of the study analyses the development of comprehensive education on England between 1944 and 1980, concentrating on the post-1965 period. The progress of reorganisation and the build up of resistance to that policy are both included. At the end of part I the complex national policy process which operated for this particular issue is examined. Emphasis is placed on the roles of and relationships between individual local authorities, the national local government system, national educational opinion, the party system and central government. Finally the considerable variations in the response of Conservative dominated local authorities and the lack of any clear explanation for these variations is noted.

In part II three detailed case studies of the London Boroughs of Merton, Richmond and Sutton and a much briefer account of Kingston are presented. These four Conservative dominated authorities displayed a full range of responses to comprehensive reorganisation from full and speedy reform to total resistance. The local policy process which produced these responses in each of the three detailed cases is examined in individual chapters. In the final comparative chapter explanations for the variations between the four authorities are sought using three broad theoretical perspectives. A pluralist explanation sees the variations as a response to different citizen preferences expressed through multiple centres of influence. An elite theory critique emphasises the closed nature of much of the decision-making and suggests that variations may lie in the differing interests or personalities of key individuals. Finally a structural explanation sees the class-related struggle for access to privileged forms of education in each authority as the decisive determinants of the differing policy responses.

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