This paper challenges the assumptions underpinning James Tooley's earlier critique in this edition of the Journal of the author's negative assessment of market-led forms of educational provision. In particular, the paper highlights Tooley's failure to acknowledge that the pursuit of self-interest within the market place can be self-defeating. The paper concludes by arguing that deliberative public action is a necessary condition for addressing the major predicaments of our time, including those facing education.

This paper explores the apparently forgotten area of community education. It examines the dominant modes of community education practice, dubbed the status reform model, and concludes that one of the key explanations of its failure to change practice was its reluctance to tackle professional domination of existing power structures in education. The article also examines New Right definitions of appropriate parental roles, of citizenship, and of community. The article concludes by identifying some possible strategies to expand and enhance the roles (...) offered by the education system to lay actors. (shrink)

This paper critically evaluates the effect of introducing markets into the institutional system of education and promotes the claim of a learning democracy to underpin a richer conception for developing the powers and capacities of all citizens.

This paper critically evaluates the effect of introducing markets into the institutional system of education and promotes the claim of a learning democracy to underpin a richer conception for developing the powers and capacities of all citizens.

This paper explores the apparently forgotten area of community education. It examines the dominant modes of community education practice, dubbed the status reform model, and concludes that one of the key explanations of its failure to change practice was its reluctance to tackle professional domination of existing power structures in education. The article also examines New Right definitions of appropriate parental roles, of citizenship, and of community. The article concludes by identifying some possible strategies to expand and enhance the roles (...) offered by the education system to lay actors. (shrink)