Introduction

This book has been inspired by my desire to write about the persistent and pervasive injustices within the English education system, injustices that I believe are as severe today as they were when I was a young girl in the 1950s. In writing this book, I aim to challenge current policy and practice by presenting a coherent argument about the ways in which the school system could change in order to address issues of education and social justice. I aim to question the dominant role of high-stakes assessment in education. I want to understand why schools have not embraced the transformative potential of digital technologies. And I want to move beyond the current polarised debate about the role of knowledge and skills within the curriculum.

Throughout the book, I draw on my research on the role of digital technologies in learning, research on mathematics education and research on the professional development of teachers. I also weave in reflections of my own education, and the educational history of my family, because this has influenced my views about the role of schools and education in society. At the same time, the book is influenced and underpinned by theoretical perspectives that enable me to interrogate issues that are relevant to the topic of education and social justice in a digital age.

The book has been written at a time of huge educational policy changes in England, changes to the curriculum, changes to assessment and changes to teacher education, and my questioning of these changes has influenced the writing of this book. In many respects, the book has become a case study of the school system in England, a study that also raises issues that are both more general and more global than is the case for one country.

This first chapter sets the scene for the whole book by emphasising the inequalities in educational opportunities that exist for young people in England. I introduce the debate about the future of schooling in the 21st century in order to reveal and challenge the dominant thinking about the ways in which digital technologies will change education. The chapter ends by presenting an overview of the whole book.