From Condescension to Complexity: post‐Plowden schooling in the inner city

Abstract

The Plowden Report, it is argued, underrated the seriousness of race and cultural issues in the inner city, and it is now clear that schools and LEAs failed to respond adequately to the rapid changes they experienced. Underlying these failures were oversimplified assumptions about the experiences and backgrounds of children and their families. The pressures to cope with change were compounded by financial conservativ‐ism and professional bewilderment. The need to shift to greater institutional consciousness and to a more sophisticated philosophical grasp of cultural and racial meanings is discussed. The slow evolution of improvements in teachers’ perceptions and performance is examined together with our developing understanding of the kind of complex professional qualities required of a teaching force in the 1980s. Progress depends on a more subtle and responsive attitude by teachers towards the views and values of the families they serve.