The Hillcole Group

 

Hillcole Publications

 

From earning to Learning: what is happening to education and the welfare state
Patrick Ainley

Pat Ainley charts here the social changes which have led from 'an earning society' to what the government now calls 'a learning society'. He describes the welfare state settlement of 1945 based on a party political compromise reflecting popular consensus for radical change. Thirty years of economic stability and full employment sustained this settlement until the oil crisis of 1973. The collapse enabled Thatcher governments from 1979 to push through a new post-welfare state settlement in which privatisation extended the reach of private monopoly capital into all areas of the economy and the lives of individuals. The new contracting post-welfare state has been enthusiastically embraced by the Blair government and lifelong learning for full employability (encompassing adaptability and flexibility) has replaced the guarantee of lifelong (15-65 male) full employment.

Ainley provides a trenchant analysis and critique of the Blatcherite policies in education, employment and welfare which have facilitated this process. He concludes with this positive statement: 'We can decide to approach the future by consciously putting our investment into a massive drive to encourage participation from everyone at every stage of life through training and education that will increase productive, social, cultural and environmental development in ways we have not yet begun to imagine.'
ISBN 1 872767966 £3.00 Purchasing information


Business, business, business: New Labour's Education Policy
Martin Allen, Caroline Benn, Clyde Chitty, Mike Cole,
Richard Hatcher, Nic Hirtt and Glen Rikowski

The three chapters in this pamphlet explore New Labour's business agenda for education. The rallying cry of 'education, education, education!' expresses suppressed hope when set against the emerging reality of Business, Business, Business-as the foundation of Labour's education agenda.
Chapter 1 unearths the roots of 'New Labour's education outlook: globalisation, competitiveness, and modernisation. Mike Cole uncovers the weak points in this outlook and exposes the consequences for school organisation, pedagogy and the future of education if it continues.
Chapter 2 argues that Labour's business agenda for education is not unique. Education throughout the EU is being restructured to accommodate the interests of big business in the 'new era' of globalisation. The consequences of the business agenda are explored for education in terms of school restructuring, competence-based curriculum reforms, the deregulation of school organisation, and the re-regulation of teachers' lives.
In chapter 3, Martin Allen pursues the issue of what business incorporation of schooling means for teachers. He explores the meaning of teacher professionalism in the current 'performance related' work environment.
In the conclusion, Caroline Benn and Clyde Chitty argue that the left must go beyond critique of existing policy drives and produce an alternative to old ideas about educating for business. They must construct an education policy in which the values and goals of democracy, equality and real educational and social progress are central.

ISBN 1872767 915   39 pp.   paperback 3.00

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New Labour and Education: Policy Ideology and the Third Way
Dave Hill

What is the Third Way in New Labour's education policy? Through a detailed analysis, Dave Hill places it in ideological perspective. Identifying 45 elements in New Labour's education policy, he locates them as centrist, centre-left, updated social democratic, centre-right, neo-conservative, neo-liberal, Thatcherite, or post-Thatcherite. Is Labour's education ideology inchoate and contradictory-a mixture of ideologies? Or does its much vaunted policy priority of 'education, education, education' represent the triumph of Thatcherism, subservient to the interests of 'business, business, business'?
Education policy does not exist in an ideological vacuum in national and international political systems. It forms a major part of overall policy and is crucially affected by financial and other policy areas. While some of the terminology may be specific to Britain, the analysis of New Labour's education policy offered here can inform judgements about their overall ideological trajectory and about similar Third Way policies in other states.
ISBN 1 872767 869    37 pp.    paperback £3.00

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Rethinking education and democracy:
A socialist alternative for the twenty first century

The Hillcole Group

The twenty-first century will need an education system very different from that of today. In this book the Hillcole Group takes up the challenge of thinking the truly thinkable to describe a vision of an education system based on principles of equality and democratic accountability to take us into the new millennium. We must move beyond the 30 year war of weak social democratic pragmatism and rigid conservative dogmatism and their inadequate and unsuccessful solutions for education. Education is for people of all ages, it is a fundamental part of life, not a preparation for life.
We provide the framework for an alternative education based in a society which itself must be changed from the constraints of past thinking into a culture of social entitlement. We apply these principles, drawing out the transformative implications for all levels of education in the current system. Our aim is to provide a radical vision of what education and society could be like in the twenty-first century.

ISBN 1 872767 45 1 paperback £7.95

 
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Changing the future: Redprint for Education
The Hillcole Group edited by Clyde Chitty


Even Adam Smith said that education was too important to leave to the whim of the market place, and we must reassert the social principles on which education should be based, for the good of the individual and society. The future that free market ideologists plan for us must be changed.
In this book the Hillcole Group renew and extend their criticism of changes made to and proposed for the education system by the Conservative government, many of them adopted by the New Labour government. They move beyond criticism to outline their proposals for an integrated comprehensive education-training system, from pre-school to post-18 and beyond, based on principles of equality and democratic accountability. Changes are proposed for the structure of the system, for curriculum and assessment, for teacher education, and for resources and funding. The proposals are drawn together in a New Education Act which provides an educational charter for the entire population, integrating education and training throughout the system. New bodies would be established to monitor and enforce high standards of participation, achievement and provision at all stages, and to integrate preparation for work with education for personal and community development. The Hillcole Group have laid down a challenge to all political parties, and revitalised the 'Education Debate' with a fresh vision of the future for education.
210 x 150 mm 199pp 1991
ISBN 1 872767 25 7 Paperback £8.95

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Equal Opportunities in the new ERA
Ann Marie Davies, Janet Holland & Rehana Minhas

The authors examined the implications of the 1988 Education Reform Act and the National Curriculum for equal opportunities in relation to gender, race and class. The New Right rhetoric of choice and parental power is compared with the actual process of consultation during the progress into law of the ERA. The effects on equal opportunities of local management of schools, open enrolment, testing and assessment and changes in methods and content of the curriculum were explored, and the negative impact of the legislation on pupils, teachers, heads, governing bodies, parents, communities and LEAs described. In conclusion the authors put forward a charter of demands to produce equality and democracy in education.

210 x 150 mm 52 pp Second Edition 1992
ISBN 1 872767 30 3 Paperback £3.95 Purchasing information


Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue: Schooling, Teacher Education and the Radical Right in Britain and the USA
Dave Hill

Dave Hill examined Radical Right attacks on liberal-democratic and social-egalitarian models of schooling and teacher education in Britain and the USA. He analysed the extent to which Radical Right ideas permeated Conservative government policy but argues that there was relatively greater resistance in Britain than in the USA. Hill criticised the shortcomings of the Licensed and Articled Teacher systems and the Government's attack on the teacher education curriculum.
210 x 150 mm 37 pp 1990
ISBN 1 872767 05 2 Paperback £3.95 Purchasing information

Training Turns to Enterprise: Vocational Education in the Market Place
Pat Ainley


Pat Ainley reviewed the phases of education policy since the war to ask and briefly examine what is left of the Youth Training Scheme before concentrating on the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative and City Technology Colleges. He described the latter as the last fling of vocationalism and the prototype for the market model of education. The author described the review of vocational qualifications undertaken by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications, seeing 'access' and modularisation as the future direction of many education reforms.
210 x 150 mm 28pp 1990
ISBN 1 872767 10 9 Paperback £3.95 Purchasing information

Markets, Morality and Equality in Education
Stephen Ball

Stephen Ball explores the political and ideological antecedents of the education market established by the Education Reform Act (1998). He considers the implications of the market for school organisation, the curriculum, teachers' work and conditions and social equality and justice. Ball argues that the education market fulfils the requirements of market forces outlined by neo-liberal economist Freidrich Hayek and sponsored by New Right think tanks, and that the Education Reform Act constitutes a fundamental social and political experiment with the lives and futures of the children of England and Wales.
210 x 150 mm 22 pp 1990
ISBN 1 872767 15 X Paperback £3.95 Purchasing information

What's left in teacher education: Teacher education, the radical left and policy proposals
Dave Hill

Dave Hill makes a series of challenging proposals for a Labour Government to enact. He argues that initial teacher education should become more, but not overwhelmingly, school based, but that it should not reject educational theory and issues of social justice. He promotes the concept of the teacher as a critical reflective practitioner.
210 x 150 mm 59pp 1991
ISBN 1 872767 20 6 Paperback £3.95 Purchasing information

Falling apart: The coming crisis of Conservative education
The Hillcole Group

We argued in this pamphlet that the 'triumphalism' of educational Conservatism was hollow. Far from resolving the problems of education in England and Wales, it made them worse. At the same time it creating the conditions for its own downfall. Working through the effects of change in the different sectors of education, Falling Apart showed how Conservative policy created unmanageable organisational problems, while at the same time bringing into being an opposition that could destroy it.210 x 150 mm 30pp 1992
ISBN 1 872767 35 4 Paperback Out of print

Whose Teachers? - A radical manifesto
The Hillcole Group

Teacher education in the 1990s was under pressure. The Hillcole Group presented alternative proposals offering a democratic vision of teacher education which is critical in the project of developing professional teachers for children and the future.
210 x 150 mm 30pp 1993
ISBN 1 872767 40 0 Paperback £3.00 Purchasing information

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