The 1944 Education Act and Its Ramifications to Date
The 1944 Education Act and its ramifications to date
The purpose of this essay is to identify the features of the 1944 Education Act and its ramifications. The state of education prior to the 1944 Act will be mentioned and how it mirrored society as a whole. A critical appraisal of justifications for selection and comprehensivisation, as a successor to the tripartite system, will be addressed. This paper will also provide an explanation of the selection process and the arguments and problems that relate to it. I will be analysing the sociological ideas and will be discussing post war trends and events in Britain and education in particular and evaluating how issues of ability, IQ, class, gender and or/ethnicity have affected change. At an appropriate point, mention will also be made of the Nature/Nurture debate and how these factors affect academic achievement.
Historically education was only available to affluent males. Grammar schools run by the church taught Latin, Greek and R.E. The fees to attend such schools were extremely high, therefore education and social class were very much linked together. Education for women was only made available to extremely wealthy women of the upper class and only consisted of embroidery, music, singing, painting etc. Women were seen to be pure and virginal and their placement within society was in the home. The lower class members of society really struggled and were not offered many educational opportunities. Eventually education for women was offered but it was very limited.
During the eighteenth century there were many developments to education, one being the introduction of charity schools (elementary schools), which were aimed at providing a very basic education for the poor. They were taught the basic 3 R’s which were reading, writing and arithmetic. This empowered them with sufficient literacy to function in society but not enough to challenge or change a society, therefore status quo is maintained.
The purpose of this essay is to identify the features of the 1944 Education Act and its ramifications. The state of education prior to the 1944 Act will be mentioned and how it mirrored society as a whole. A critical appraisal of justifications for selection and comprehensivisation, as a successor to the tripartite system, will be addressed. This paper will also provide an explanation of the selection process and the arguments and problems that relate to it. I will be analysing the sociological ideas and will be discussing post war trends and events in Britain and education in particular and evaluating how issues of ability, IQ, class, gender and or/ethnicity have affected change. At an appropriate point, mention will also be made of the Nature/Nurture debate and how these factors affect academic achievement.
Historically education was only available to affluent males. Grammar schools run by the church taught Latin, Greek and R.E. The fees to attend such schools were extremely high, therefore education and social class were very much linked together. Education for women was only made available to extremely wealthy women of the upper class and only consisted of embroidery, music, singing, painting etc. Women were seen to be pure and virginal and their placement within society was in the home. The lower class members of society really struggled and were not offered many educational opportunities. Eventually education for women was offered but it was very limited.
During the eighteenth century there were many developments to education, one being the introduction of charity schools (elementary schools), which were aimed at providing a very basic education for the poor. They were taught the basic 3 R’s which were reading, writing and arithmetic. This empowered them with sufficient literacy to function in society but not enough to challenge or change a society, therefore status quo is maintained.
Bibliography: Rogers, R (1986) Education and Social Class. Great Britain: Taylor & Francis Ltd