Home Thoughts from Abroad: Reflections on Education and Policy

Abstract

A short, discursive paper derived from a largely comparativist perspective, reflecting on the purposes of education, emphasising that motivation and the ‘softer’ variables of locus of control, self‐esteem and attribution of causality are vital process components of a sensitive curriculum, often having greater predictive capacity than literacy or numeracy. Greater attention to the former is needed, if we are to avoid constant alienation of large sections of society. The writer draws on some forty‐five years of educational experience, starting with a small story, which opens up the discussion the roles of formal education and the state, the ambiguities lying at the heart of formal education and the need for a more flexible, person‐centred approach to the curriculum. Fashions in language descriptors of education and its ‘commodification’ in the market place are seen as a danger to social cohesion. The writer concludes with a series of assertions regarding the nature of a good system in a time of rapid change.

Key words:

• Policy
• cohesion
• change and flexibility
• motivational variables
• social structure