Lord John Russell and the Origins of the Committee of Council on Education
In February 1839 Lord John Russell put before the House of Commons a set of proposals for governmental action in the field of popular education. It was a contentious move by the Home Secretary, and the bitter political tussle which it provoked was predictable. In the context of a flagging ministry facing an opposition already scenting office, it seems almost cavalier. The well-known outcome was the formation of a new executive agency for the management of the state's role in the education of the people, the Committee of Privy Council on Education. The whole incident attracts notice in several dimensions of historical commentary. Social and political narratives must record it; students of Whiggery, Russell, reform or radicalism, must give it place and plausibility; it is a turning point for the historian of education; and it provides a case study for the investigation of government growth in the nineteenth century.
Integration or Segregation? The education of the Irish in Britain in Roman Catholic voluntary‐aided schools
The origins of Roman Catholic voluntary‐aided schools are examined in order to explore how the British state has dealt with its largest labour migrant group: the Irish. The argument developed is that ethnic minority issues, in particular those of integration and segregation, were at the heart of the institutionalisation of religious schools as part of the state education system in Britain. The divisions of 19th century British society embodied in religion, class, and national identity were expressed as anti‐Catholicism and anti‐Irishness. In Liverpool between 1835‐41 an educational experiment took place to introduce the ‘Irish System’ to the corporation schools in the city. The defeat of this experiment by an Tory/Anglican alliance which powerfully linked hostility to Catholicism with the ‘Irish Question’ ended prospects for a national, interdenominational system of education. The resulting compromise ensured that the children of Irish Catholics were segregated and differentiated from the rest of the work...
Political Developments: Some Conclusions and an Interpretation
When the political decisions and achievements of the post-Khrushchev Soviet leadership are considered as a whole, it is not immediately obvious that there is any pattern to them. It may, nevertheless, be useful to begin by devoting attention to some of the major policy tendencies and outcomes of the past decade, most of which have already been considered in greater detail by other contributors, before going on to enquire if any broad strategy underlying them may be discerned and to attempt to place the various changes in a broader political context.