EDUCATION FOR THE GOOD SOCIETY - Support

Michael Fielding takes the traditional concept of‘fellowship’ to a new level. His concept of ‘democraticfellowship’ is used to recognise an interdependencybetween teachers and students as thebasis for greater democracy in our educationalinstitutions, a pre-condition for wider democracyin the educational system as a whole.Chapters 8, 9 and 10 explore other dimensionsof expansiveness. In Chapter 8, ‘What kind ofsociety values adult learning?’, Tom Sperlingerfinds that the road to the Good Society will belittered with imperfections and thus there is aconstant need to learn and relearn. Followingon from this Tom Schuller in Chapter 9 arguesfor the wider benefits of lifelong learning andsuggests there should be a ‘longer and different’approach to learning throughout the life-course– arguably the hallmark of the Good Society inaction. Ewart Keep takes the analysis into therealms of the economy and labour market inChapter 10. He recalls that New Labour wasover-ambitious about what education and skillscould achieve on their own and under-ambitiousabout the need to forge the Good Societyin the wider economy. He persuasively arguesthat education, as a transformative force, cannotdo this in isolation from a wider social andeconomic strategy.The final two chapters aim to act as a bridgebetween this volume, which is primarilyconcerned with vision, and the education ebooksto come, which will increasingly focus on debates,strategy and structure. In ‘Re-taking the highground: steps towards a persuasive progressiveposition on schooling’, Martin Yarnit suggeststhat the Left’s failure has been, in large part,its inability to learn from successful politicalcampaigning. He argues for a new cultural revolutionto transform popular commonsense, basedon an underlying optimism that all learners cansucceed given the right conditions. In Chapter12 Ken Spours suggests that Education of theGood Society and the renewal of the comprehensiveideal will require a new type of educationalpolitics based on a values-led approach.This ebook will be the first of several Compasspublications to contribute to an agenda forprogressive education reform. The CompassEducation Group was formed in 2010 and has over200 participants. It has developed an Educationfor the Good Society Statement, a micro-site andholds regular meetings, seminars and conferences.The next step will be a series of seminarsduring 2011/12 to build on this volume, and tofocus on its omissions – the education sectorsfrom primary through to higher education, howinstitutions are organised, how the curriculumand qualifications system can be transformed,and the practicalities of a genuine approach tolifelong learning.Neal Lawson and Ken Spours(September 2011)For further information about the CompassEducation Group and education for the GoodSociety please contact Ken Spours(k.spours@ioe.ac.uk).Education for the good society | 7