Education in a Federal UK

Britain’s two recent referenda - on Brexit (2016) and on Scottish independence (2014) - have raised in the public mind fundamental questions about the future of the UK. It seems that for the first time, the public, the media and the political elite have woken up to the fact that in different parts of the UK, there are different histories, different aspirations and different imagined futures in relation to a whole range of vitally important political issues. But what the public debate often fails to recognise is that in many areas of public life – perhaps especially education – the UK is already a federal state and in key respects has been so for many years.

The aim of this volume is therefore to take stock: to try and capture what the current state of educational policy and practice is across the whole of the UK. This has been achieved by commissioning two different papers from each of the four countries – Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England. The first is an overview, exploring the distinctive history, principles and current policies of each country. The second paper has been specifically chosen as a case study of a key policy that highlights the distinctiveness of each country – the Foundation Phase for Wales, assessment policy in Scotland, ‘shared education’ initiatives in Northern Ireland and higher education policy in England. Taken together these eight papers give an important insight into the complexities of educational policy and practice across the whole of the UK today. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Oxford Review of Education.

John Furlong is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, UK. His research interests centre on both teacher education and educational research policy and the links between them. In 2015, his book Education: an anatomy of the discipline (Routledge) was awarded first prize by the British Society for Educational Studies for the best educational research book of the year.

Ingrid Lunt is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, UK. A psychologist by background she has served as President of the British Psychological Society and of the European Federation of Psychologists Associations. Her research interests include higher education, in particular doctoral education, and professional qualification systems internationally.