Higher education and UK elite formation in the twentieth century

This study examines the proposition that mass higher education is, in practice, less a network of more or less homogeneous activities than a series of concentric circles in which elite institutions remain at the centre, but are surrounded by increasingly wide bands of universities and colleges, that are less and less likely to set graduates on the road to elite status the further they are from the centre. After a brief review of the classical and subsequent literature on elites and elite formation, the empirical study uses data from the very long established annual publication Who’s Who to make a quantitative analysis of the higher education background of all 120,000 Who’s Who entries born in the twentieth century. It finds that Oxford and Cambridge remained the dominant route to elite status throughout the century, though their share fell from about a third to about a quarter of the total. There were big rises in the contribution of other leading universities that have come to be known as the ‘Russell Group’. An analysis by main occupational categories shows that the political elite broadened its educational catchment area more than other groups. The so-called ‘public’ (i.e. independent) secondary schools also continued to make contributions much larger than their numbers warrant. The main conclusions are that Bourdieu’s notion of ‘symbolic capital’ offers a useful contribution to the interpretation of the continued dominance of well-known high status universities, and that while there was considerable change throughout the century, in general it followed the British tradition of being evolutionary and slow. In policy terms it concluded that the present government is justified in seeking both to widen participation generally and simultaneously to increase the number of people from modest economic and social backgrounds who attend the high prestige universities.     

Catholic women teachers and Scottish education in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Catholics remained outside the Scottish educational system until 1918. The Church preferred mixed‐sex infant schools and either single‐sex schools or separate departments. In small towns and rural areas the schools were mixed‐sex. Women were considered naturally best suited to teach infants and girls, but even in boys' schools, female assistants were increasingly employed in the later Victorian period. Female religious orders were crucial for developing Catholic education in larger urban centres, but by 1918 only 4% of Scotland's Catholic schoolteachers were members of religious orders. Lay women quickly became numerically predominant in elementary education and were key to implementing the Church's strategy to enhance the respectability of a largely immigrant community through separate schools. It is the contention here that the part played by lay women in Catholic schooling needs to be considered to reflect more widely on the place of women in Scottish education.     

Outdoor physical education in French schools during the twentieth century

During the twentieth century, outdoor physical education (OPE) gradually integrated with the French education system. Culturally speaking, OPE had to overcome several hurdles because it promoted values such as freedom, initiative and responsibility that were deemed incompatible with the existing educational model. Beyond being a pedagogical tool, the health and welfare implications justified the existence of OPE within the school system, thus changing the meaning of those values. The question of human relations with nature truly facilitated the incorporation of OPE into French educational programmes even if the scope of its development is rather limited today. Some might regret the predominance of a kind of physical activity that conveyed values and was proven to be especially productive in terms of issues related to education, security and respect for the environment. Nevertheless, OPE physical activities found their rightful place within the school system because of the sports facet of the activities.     

A gathering of great minds: Designing twenty‐first century education with twentieth century ideas

Imagine that influential thinkers of the past could join with those of the present to design today's college student experiences. Author Kari Taylor envisions the outcomes of such a process.     

The educational work of the De la Salle Brothers and popular education in Gipuzkoa in the twentieth century

^{1 1}This article is the result of a research project financed by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Education, project number EDU-2010-15218. The authors are members of the Research Group for Historical and Comparative Studies in Education – Garaian of the University of the Basque Country, recognised by the Basque Government, registry number IT 298/10. Many religious orders and congregations that were deported from France between 1904 and 1914 established themselves in neighbouring countries (Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Spain). One of the affected congregations was Los Hermanos de las Escuelas Cristianas, ^{2 2}The Brothers of Christian Schools which worked in the field of popular education. Many of its members found refuge in the Spanish province of Gipuzkoa, which neighbours France on the Atlantic coast, where it succeeded in establishing and maintaining itself for centuries. Today it is the second most important congregation in terms of the number of schools and teachers in the private school sector. An analysis of this congregation in Gipuzkoa during a 100-year period reveals a considerable increase in schools located in cities and villages with a large industrial sector; with institutions being dispersed throughout the entire province, and a dedication to popular education through vocational training. This training has been one of the most important characteristics of Lasallian pedagogy, and it paralleled the modernisation processes of Gipuzkoan society in the twentieth century.     

The educational system and national identities: the case of Spain in the twentieth century

The aim of this article is to study the construction of the Spanish education system and its relationship with nationalist education policies. Throughout the 20^th century, there has been a great deal of tension between Spanish nationalism and Basque and Catalan nationalism, in particular, over the establishment of a national curriculum that is the expression of different conceptions of national identity. In this period, the Spanish education system evolved from centralisation to decentralisation, and as a result brought about the creation of the Spanish national curriculum. The educational contributions made in Catalonia and the Basque Country were included in this process, which partially satisfied the aspirations of these communities.     

Educating Immigrants in the Netherlands: Migration flows and educational policy in the twentieth century

The first part of this article describes some general tendencies in migrant and school populations in Western Europe. Then it focusses upon some specific migration flows in the Netherlands in the twentieth century. A distinction is made between three migration parameters: colonies, labour force, and asylum. The second part of this article discusses the policy initiatives taken to educate the different migrant groups and their offspring. A distinction can be made between the first 70 years of the twentieth century and the remaining decades. In the first part of the century the education of immigrants was in the hands of private initiatives set up by churches, welfare institutions, migrant organisations, and employers. Later the Dutch government became a major player.

     

数学文化在数学教育中的意义

文章通过分析数学教育现有形势,简述了数学文化的内涵,并且着重分析了数学文化在数学教育中的作用和意义。     

Technology and the values of a liberal education

Conclusion Scholars in the humanities and social sciences have legitimate concerns about the impact of computer technology on their budgets, their time, and their institutions. The discipline of computer science, however, is extremely well suited to the values of a classical liberal education: students who study it become intimately acquainted with objectivity, critical thinking, and personal responsibility. As such, computer science and computer technology should be a welcome ally in the battle for the soul of America’s universities. In the long run, they inculcate values and intellectual habits that represent the best in American higher education.     

Bringing knowledge back in: perspectives from liberal education

From the vantage point of liberal education, this article attempts to contribute to the conversation initiated by Michael Young and his colleagues on ‘bringing knowledge back’ into the current global discourse on curriculum policy and practice. The contribution is made through revisiting the knowledge-its-own-end thesis associated with Newman and Hirst, Bildung-centred Didaktik and the Schwabian model of a liberal education. The central thesis is that if education is centrally concerned with the cultivation of human powers (capacities, ways of thinking, dispositions), then knowledge needs to be seen as an important resource for that cultivation. A theory of knowledge is needed that conceives the significance of knowledge in ways productive of this cultivation. Furthermore, a theory of content is needed that concerns how knowledge is selected and translated into curriculum content and how content can be analysed and unpacked in ways that open up manifold opportunities for cultivating human powers.