Improving Schools:Developing Schools for all children

[From Introduction] This presentation focuses on Improving schools for all children. But there is a problem with the term ‘improving’ in that it assumes things are always getting better But notions of improvement are culturally located – so what is considered ‘improvement’ in one culture (and one time and space in history) may not be so considered in another. For example in the UK in the twentieth century there was a strong move to schooling which included boys and girls in the same classes in one school, whatever the age of the boys and girls. Some parents resisted this, but most parents seemed to have welcomed this, not least because it seemed to expand the educational opportunities available to girls (women). However in some parts of the world, including some countries round here, such developments would not be considered improvements.