EDUCATION FOR THE GOOD SOCIETY - Support

imposed successfully from above. Democracy isthe means by which the four pillars – equality,sustainability, democracy and human well-being– are bound together. But it will be a far moreparticipative and deeper democracy than wecurrently experience. It will also bring a greateraccent on the local and civil society, a tolerationof differences and a greater belief in persuasionand argument rather than force. Such a visionof the Good Society has the potential to bepopular and to span political, social and culturalboundaries. The Good Society is fashioned by apolitics that gives primacy to means over endsand the recognition that social institutions arethe places in which progressive values live, breathand thrive; that is why education is critical tobuilding such a society.The Good Society – a vision foreducationWe need a ‘serious utopianism’, both visionaryand practical, to create a new common senseabout education. Education must become bothmeans and ends. The meaning and practice ofthe Good Society will be realised by developingconfident, empowered and aware citizens,through a process that is profoundly democratic,egalitarian and considerate of others. Educationthus forms an integral part of the Good Societyand its realisation. Becoming educated is aboutdeveloping awareness and higher levels ofknowledge and skill, and learning to live together,all of which will be needed in building a differenttype of society from the one we have presently.Education, understood in this broadest sense,will need to be guided by clear and explicitprinciples that fulfil our current needs andcontribute to a possible future.Fairness and equalityThere are several reasons why this principle shouldbe the first for consideration. The neo-liberalvision of education for personal advantagehas unfairness built into it. One person’s gainis another’s loss, producing a system of the‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. Within these divisivearrangements operates an ‘inverse law of care’;those who have the most tend to get the most.Interacting with social and economic unfairnessis also race and gender discrimination, addingadditional dimensions of difference. If educationis about a wider sense of togetherness, in whichgreater equality benefits all, then disadvantagehas to be tackled head-on and resources allocatedaccording to need to ensure that everyone canparticipate fully and realise their potential.Moreover, the battle for fairness and togethernessprovides a renewed rationale for the commonschool and an education linked to communityand place. Conservatives argue that schools basedon communities will accentuate difference. Tocounter this, the linking of the common school towider issues of fairness means having to confrontsocial and economic inequalities in localities thatdrive divisions.Personal development and the freedomto exercise democratic controlFollowing arguments about fairness, educationhas to be universal in order that everyone is ableto develop their full potential. Yet the aim ofeducation is more than individual fulfilment – it isabout developing the collective capacity of peopleto be able to govern themselves, to transformwider civil society, the economy and government.Education is, therefore, a fundamentaldemocratic issue. It can only truly promote thevalues of democracy when education itself ismore democratically organised. This suggests ademocratising agenda that includes greater localaccountability, a stronger voice for professionalsorganised in communities of practice, the developmentof inter-dependent relations betweeneducators and their students, and devolvingresponsibility to the local level so that communitieshave powers to actually change their localities.This means moving from ‘freedom from’ andinstitutional autonomy to ‘freedom to’, wherebysocial partners working together exercise moredemocratic control. 11State education and self-organisationThe Left has traditionally argued that only thestate can guarantee equity. The problem is thatthe state has also delivered privatisation (the aimof the Coalition Government) and bureaucratisation(the record of New Labour). 12 A democraticvision of education for the Good Society askswhat is meant by ‘state education’. The scale andquality of freedom envisaged requires reform of11 Lawrence Pratchett suggeststhat strategies for localism haveto distinguish between ‘freedomfrom’ higher authority and‘freedom to’ bring about changethat involves possessing thepower to collectively reshapelocalities. See L. Pratchett, ‘Localautonomy, local democracy andthe new localism’, Political Studies,52(2), 2004, pp.358–75.12 Janet Newman offers anexcellent account of NewLabour’s ‘adaptive managerialism’in Modernising Governance: NewLabour, Policy and Society, Sage/OUP, 2001.Education for the good society | 11