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.

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'Education, inequality and profit in the time of COVID-19' on Transforming Society

"Stephen Ball is one of the few academics who can embrace policy, research and learning with a fierce and illuminating critical spirit." Richard Andrews, University of East Anglia

"This must-read book is forensic in its analysis and points to the imperative for new thinking on education." Hugh Lauder, University of Bath

"Informative, wise and angry in equal measure about the continued injustices meted out to students in the guise of 'progress', 'what works' and equity." Pat Thomson, University of Nottingham

"[This] detailed study of all governments since 1976 and of the idiosyncrasies of their respective policies... provides academics but also the general public with tools which help them to fully understand the nuances in evolutions which may first appear inconsequential or inconsistent." Les Cahiers du GRASP

"This invaluable new edition of this powerful and provocative book offers fresh insights into political context and policy narratives." Phillip Brown, Cardiff University

"My students need a book that introduces them to policy analysis in a rigorous yet accessible manner; this is it." Meg Maguire, King’s College London

"Policy researchers are deeply indebted to Ball’s detailed analysis that underpins the sociological contribution in this book." Helen Gunter, University of Manchester

"This brilliant book should be compulsory reading for all sociologists of education everywhere, and for all those interested in education." Bob Lingard, University of Queensland

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