Full Description
The essays in this book criticise the new positivism in education policy, whereby education is systematically reduced to those things that can be measured by so-called 'objective' tests. School curricula have been narrowed with an emphasis on measurable results in the 3 R's and the 'quality' of university departments is now assessed by managerial exercises based on commercial audit practice. As a result, the traditional notion of liberal arts education has been replaced by utilitarian productivity indices.
Contents
Acknowledgements About Authors Introduction Part Iof Universities ========================================= Bruce Charlton, Audit, Accountability and All That Anthony Smith, The Laura Spence Affair Evan Harris, Higher Education: A Question of Access Robert Grant, Education, Utility and the Universities Roger Scruton, The Idea of a University Stephen Prickett, Polyphony, the Idea of Education, and Social Utility Desmond Ryan, Neo-Luddism Part II: Testing to Destruction: the New School Environment =========================================================== Diana Mabbutt, From Board School to Boardroom Margaret Sutcliffe, Bureaucracy and the Growth of Anxiety in a Small Independent School Libby Purves, Against the Grain Rowan Williams, Statements, Acts and Values Afterword ========= Stephen Prickett, Managerial Ethics and the Corruption of the Future
