Education, History of

The purpose of this Master's Thesis is to refute the
accepted belief that the English Education Act of 1944 was
truly revolutionary as many historians would have es believe.
By way of explanation, during World War II, the National
Board of Education in England, under the guidance of Herwald
Ramsbotham, began the tedious process of developing a thoroughly
democratic system of education for England. In the
end, leading politicians and writers of the decade claimed
that the Board's reforms truly revolutionized the overall
system of education in England. Yet, the average child attending one of the state or religious schools in England
after the so-called reforms of 1944, was offered little, if any more than had been offered in prior years.
This study examines the structure and evolution of
the English educational system, concentrating on the Education Act of 1944, to determine why the English Education Act
of 1944 was not the revolutionary act it is claimed to be by
historians.

The purpose of this historical study was to discover (a) if the absence of a common, understandable definition of community education was a primary reason for the field's apparent lack of recognition in the public education arena and (b) if the definition problem was also associated with the concerns of community educators about the future viability of the field. The study was open to the discovery of another or other feasible reasons for the problems confronting the field. Its purpose was achieved through an examination of the media of the community education field and other pertinent media. The researcher surveyed the educational origins of the community education movement in the United States in order to explore the historical context of the movement that has its roots in Flint, Michigan, and to discern its possible relationship to earlier educational movements. Additionally, the researcher (a) examined the development of community education in Flint, from its beginning as a recreational program to its growth into a community school program and its maturation into a community education process, and (b) surveyed several definitions published during the maturation period. The evolution of the movement on a national level was also explored, as were several continuing issues that dealt with the implementation of the community education process on a field-wide basis. Discovered in the strategies offered to resolve the issues was the consensus that the field needed to become committed to its process components, especially community involvement. The community involvement component was considered to be the factor that made community education different from public education. The study revealed that the absence of a common, understandable definition of community education was not a primary reason for the problems confronting the field of community education. The researcher discovered a more tenable reason for the problems: Community educators had not fully implemented the process components of community education on a field-wide basis, especially the community involvement component. Throughout the development of community education, the field's leaders had maintained that community education would not succeed without this implementation. Other conclusions and recommendations for further study were offered.