The new comprehensive
ideal. How can sixth form
colleges be part of it?
Prof. Ken Spours
Institute of Education
University of London
The comprehensive ideal:
an unfinished project
• Comprehensive education as a partially fulfilled ideal – no
iconic 1948 NHS moment
• 1960s/70s - Focus on the ‘common school’ but
– co-existed with selective education
– no comprehensive curriculum or qualifications system
– not extended to post-16 education or lifelong learning
• The comprehensive experiment faded and education
system conservatively modernised in the following three
decades
• The comprehensive ideal became practiced by particular
schools and colleges.
The new context: different
responses to globalisation
• Globalisation and ‘New Times’ – changes in
economic production and work organisation; the
Web, communication revolution, digitisation and
social networking; climate change, new global
challenges and greater sense of inter-dependency
• Three models of reform – (1) Anglo Saxon; (2)
Pacific and (3) Nordic - the Coalition is trying to
merge 1 and 2
• Coalition approach – marketisation/privatisation
and authoritarian approach to learning (traditional
knowledge/didactic pedagogy)
Problems facing young people:
education alone not the answer
• Young people as the ‘new poor’ – debt,
unemployment and exclusion from the property
ladder
• The social recession and mental health issues
• A crisis of opportunity and an uncertain future
• This requires a new comprehensive approach
which is economic, social, educational that has at
its centre the ideal of ‘inter-generational justice’
What type of economic, societal
& educational modernisation?
‘Hour glass’ or ‘social’
economy?
Divided/narrow
or
unified/expansiv
e 14-19 system?
5
Comprehensive
economic, social
& educational
strategy
Social vision –
elite or
inclusive?
The new comprehensive
ideal
1. The centrality of values – fairness, democracy, sustainability,
wellbeing and creativity – and that everyone is ‘educable’
2. A new curriculum – core knowledge; research skills; people
skills and new challenges – a modern baccalaureate approach
3. Comprehensive area-based organisation – educating
institutional togetherness and collaboration
4. An expansive professionalism – triple approach of
professional knowledge; pedagogic skills and ability to work
across boundaries
5. Closer integration of education, working life and
communities –vocational education, linked to economic and
social opportunities
What makes a comprehensive
college?
• Commitment to inclusion, social justice and educability
• Distributed leadership – everyone feels ownership and
exercises initiative
• ‘Vocational expertise’, good teaching and the organisation
of effective learning
• Centrality of progression – do we need a ‘ramp’ rather
than steps?
• Wider challenges to build student social capital (B7?)
• Commitment to continuous professional learning
communities of practice
• Working with employers; higher education and wider
social partners – increasing economic and social
opportunity