Policy Press

The Education Debate

By Stephen J. Ball

Published

Sep 21, 2021

Page count

288 pages

Edition

4th Edition

Browse the series

Policy and Politics in the Twenty-First Century

ISBN

978-1447360131

Dimensions

198 x 129 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Sep 21, 2021

Page count

288 pages

Edition

4th Edition

Browse the series

Policy and Politics in the Twenty-First Century

ISBN

978-1447360155

Dimensions

198 x 129 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

Sep 21, 2021

Page count

288 pages

Edition

4th Edition

Browse the series

Policy and Politics in the Twenty-First Century

ISBN

978-1447360155

Dimensions

198 x 129 mm

Imprint

Policy Press
The Education Debate

Education policy in England is constantly evolving and becoming increasingly incoherent and it is therefore becoming harder to keep up with, and make sense of, all the changes. This bestselling book looks at the role of the UK as a social laboratory for global education policy. Covering key concepts, it then examines new areas, including:

•Global education policy mobility

•Edu-business and philanthropy as policy actors

•Marketisation of education

•Increase in performance gap

•Poverty and austerity

•Impact of COVID-19 on schools and in education policy

•New forms of governance

This extensively updated fourth edition by the key author in the field will maintain its place as the most important text on education policy and makes essential reading for all students and anyone interested in education policy more generally.

Stephen J. Ball is Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology of Education at the University College London Institute of Education. He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2006; and is also Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences; and Society of Educational Studies, and a Laureate of Kappa Delta Phi; he has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Turku (Finland), and Leicester. He is co-founder and Managing Editor of the Journal of Education Policy.

His main areas of interest are in sociologically informed education policy analysis and the relationships between education, education policy and social class. He has written 20 books and had published over 140 journal articles. Recent books: Edu.Net (Routledge 2017) and Foucault as Educator (Springer 2017).

Preface by Michael Hill

Introduction: The great education debate (1976-2016)

1. Key concepts: education policy, economic necessity and education reform

2. Class, comprehensives and continuities: a short history of English education policy

3. Policy Technologies and The UK government’s approach to public service reform

4. Policy, inequity and advantage

5. A sociology of education policy: past, present and future