The governing bodies of publicly funded schools in England are currently facing a number of substantive challenges of various kinds. Many of the challenges are long-standing, while others relate to the current context for governing wrought by recent education policy developments initiated by central government. A number of the challenges are…

The Education Reform Act of 1988 introduced both a National Curriculum and a regime of inspection designed to ensure that schools were adequately meeting the demands of this curriculum. At the same time schools were being given greater autonomy through the increased powers of the governing body and open enrolment. Rather than add to the freedoms…

Examines the way recent childhood policy initiatives in Britain have generated contradictory models of child competence and adults' role, and attempts to locate policy within broader understandings of social change. Draws from case material on two dominant child care issues: child sex abuse and school deviance. (BGC)