Educational Policy-making

Book excerpt: Originally published in 1975. This masterly study of policies and policy-makers in education opens up a major, and fascinating, area of public policy to analysis. In this book Professor Kogan draws together many of his previous findings to provide a searching examination and overview of education and its relationship both to government and to individuals and groups within the system. The result is not only a definitive statement on the making of educational policy, but a study of pressure groups; and in broader terms it is a commentary on the democratic efficiency of the British policymaking process both inside and outside Parliament. The core of the book is an analysis of the main policies which were the major concerns of educational government between 1960 and 1974. This shows how the various interest groups in education differ in their attitudes and their ways of working; and provides both an intriguing insight into the historical development of education over this key period and a variety of personal views from the individuals who helped to shape this development.