In the twenty years after the Second World War, English society experienced opposing positions regarding the education of Britain's youth, particularly teachers of English. Different attitudes to achieving a fully democratic society--whether by cultivating high standards in the ablest students or promoting a common cultural experience across abilities and social classes were explored. The authors have studied three London school English departments in unprecedented detail, one of them an early comprehensive school, using oral history interviews and the collection and analysis of a large body of documents, including teachers' mark books and students' work. This move towards a more inclusive version of English involved not only the teachers in the comprehensive schools, but also some in the grammar schools--shaping the ideas of those who would found a new London English teachers association.

Using a wide range of student testimony and oral history, Georgina Brewis sets in international, comparative context a one-hundred year history of student voluntarism and social action at UK colleges and universities, including such causes as relief for victims of fascism in the 1930s and international development in the 1960s.

Using a wide range of student testimony and oral history, Georgina Brewis sets in international, comparative context a one-hundred year history of student voluntarism and social action at UK colleges and universities, including such causes as relief for victims of fascism in the 1930s and international development in the 1960s.

Conflicting conservative and radical impulses in English society after WWII were played out in microcosm in education. They particularly shaped English teaching, examined in three post-war London schools in a detailed study that uses oral history-interviews with former teachers and students-and documents including mark books and students' work.