Rights in Education

This guide provides an introduction to the IOE's archive collections covering rights in education.

Rights in Education: Introduction

This guide provides an introduction to the IOE's archive collections covering rights in education. These collections can be used to research rights in education generally, or more specifically with themed sections on class, race and gender.

Guidance

For guidance on how to use our dedicated online catalogue to browse and search archives, manuscripts and records see the archives home page.

Archive collections

General rights

Records of the British National Conference on Social Work (CSW)

Between 1950 and 1960, four national conferences were held involving organisations and individuals representing a wide range of social work organisations and activities. Part of their work looked at children’s rights in schools. See the collection description on the archive catalogue. (RefNo: CSW)

Records of the Education in Human Rights Network (EHR)

The Education in Human Rights Network was established in January 1987 to 'enable and encourage communication between people working in a variety of educational settings in promoting an awareness and understanding of human rights', as it was considered that human rights education was receiving little Government and DES support. (RefNo: EHR)

Records of the Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishment (STOPP)

Founded in 1968, the Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishment (STOPP) was a pressure group which campaigned for the abolition of corporal punishment in schools and other institutions in the United Kingdom. Due to the large amount of case studies containing individual’s personal details, much of this material is restricted. Please contact the Archives for further information about accessing this collection. (RefNo: STO)

Papers of Trevor Jaggar

Trevor Jaggar was a teacher and university lecturer before joining ILEA in 1970. This collections contains various lectures and conference reports on the subject of equal opportunities, mainly considering gender and ethnicity. (RefNo: JAG)

Class

Records of the ILEA Bridging Course

The intention of the ILEA Bridging Course, founded as a pilot-scheme in 1976, was to bridge the transition from school to working life. Amongst the considerations for this scheme, were factors relating to class. The collection contains reports and evaluations, minutes of meetings, photographs of students on the course, and photographs of an exhibition about the course. (RefNo: BR)

Cambridge Association for the Advancement of State Education (CAASE)

The Cambridge Association for the Advancement of State Education (CAASE) was formed in November 1960 by a group of parents dissatisfied with the provision of space and equipment in a local Cambridge primary school, and quickly developed into a county-wide organisation. One of its stated objectives was to look at alternatives to the eleven-plus examination. The collection contains newsletters, publicity materials, minutes and reports. (RefNo: CAA)

Papers of Isabel Fry (1869-1958)

Isabel Fry (1869-1958) was an educationist, social worker and reformer. Amongst other projects tackling social injustice and class barriers to education, she opened a new experimental school for deprived children and refugees at Church Farm, Buckinghamshire in 1934. (RefNo: FY)

Papers of Michael Marland

Michael Marland (1934-2008) was a pioneering educationalist; both theorist and practitioner. He was a passionate proponent of the comprehensive ideal, of inclusivity in general and of good educational practice. He wrote and spoke on a variety of topics including inner-city and inter-cultural education. (RefNo: MAR)

Papers of Brian Simon (1915-2002)

Simon was extremely active in his field and founded or co-founded a number of organisations during his career. He was a teacher and academic, particularly interested in the History of Education. Simon's work on comprehensive education, intelligence testing and streaming is particularly relevant when considering class barriers to education (see files SIM/4/8/6, SIM/4/4/64, SIM/4/6/14, SIM/1/6). (RefNo: SIM)

Papers of R.H. Tawney (1880-1962)

R.H. Tawney (1880-1962) was a distinguished social and economic historian. He was also a Christian Socialist and proponent of democratic education. Tawney took an active part in discussions on educational reform and exercised influence on policy-making in the area of education. (RefNo: TY)

Race

Papers of Marina Foster

Marina Foster was born and educated in South Africa and came to the UK as a refugee from apartheid in the 1960s. She played an important role in the development of ILEA's policy on multi-ethnic education and in the development of in-service courses for teachers in linguistic and cultural diversity and in tackling institutional racism. She was also an activist and campaigner for children's rights and against racial discrimination. As a Black teacher she herself had experience of discrimination within the educational system and in schools and as a Black parent was involved in community struggles for equality for Black and ethnic minority children. (RefNo: MF)

Records of the Schools Council for Curriculum and Examinations (SCC)

The Schools Council was established in 1964 by the Secretary of State for Education. It took over responsibility for curriculum and examinations previously undertaken by the Secondary Schools Examination Council and the Curriculum Study Group. In 1969, with a revised constitution, it became a registered charity and, in 1970, an independent body financed in equal parts by government and local education authorities. This collection offers several resources covering rights in education, but is particularly strong on its coverage of multi-culturalism in schools (see files: SCC/241, SCC/CU/6, SCC/P/48, SCC/PU/9, SCC/RD/1 & 5, SCC/SE/5). (RefNo: SCC)

Institute of Education Publications

This is a large collection which comprises the IOE's publications from its foundation to present day. Within this there are several files relating to rights, particularly in consideration of race issues (see files: IE/PUB/8/2/1, IE/PUB/1/5/1, IE/PUB/8/2/2, IE/PUB/1/4/4 and IE/PUB/16/4). (RefNo: IE/PUB)

Centre for Multicultural Education (CME)

The Centre was set up at the Institute in 1979 with the support of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) for the national and international study of issues in race and culture. It was not attached to any single department at the Institute but worked across departments to design and implement educational strategies appropriate for a multicultural society and able to counteract racism. This is held within the main IOE Publications collection. (RefNo: IE/PUB/10/20)

Gender

(See also, Women and Education)

Papers of Professor Miriam David

Miriam David is Professor of Sociology of Education here at the IOE in the Faculty of Policy and Society. She has a world class reputation for her research on gender, families, social diversity and inequalities in education, including lifelong learning and higher education. This collection is important for a study of gender issues in education, but also covers issues relating to social class. (RefNo: MID)

Papers of Professor Kate Myers

When the Sex Discrimination Act was introduced in 1975-1976, it encouraged some educationalists to examine the differentiated school curriculum. Many schools still offered different curriculum options for the sexes or girls were often pressured into making traditional choices. The careers options for women were limited, and in 1979 61% of working women were employed in only 10 professions. In the late 1970s-1980s there were a range of initiatives to address these issues supported by the Equal Opportunities Commission and a few Local Education Authorities. Kate Myers was a teacher at Haverstock School in Camden, North London and was involved in several of these initiatives. Her papers offer insight into this period of educational reform on gender inequality. (RefNo: MYE)

Records of the National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT)

The National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT) was founded within the National Union of Teachers in 1904 as the Equal Pay League, the organisation was renamed the National Federation of Women Teachers in 1906. Lack of progress in securing NUT support for the equal pay campaign led to its establishment as an independent body, the National Union of Women Teachers, in 1920. While the Union's primary aim remained the achievement of parity between men and women teachers' pay and conditions of service, the NUWT also interested itself in a wide range of social, professional and educational issues. This is a vast collection, offering a historical perspective on gender rights in education. The journal of the NUWT was called The Woman Teacher and it is fully digitised and available online. (RefNo: UWT)

Papers of Lesley Longley

Lesley Longley completed a Masters dissertation at IOE during the late 1980s on the topic of the education of girls during the interwar years. She was a registered PhD student at the University of Surrey and had begun collating research material when she died at the age of 70. This collection contains material collected by Lesley Longley during preparatory research for a PhD on the education of working class girls, focusing on the predominance of gender stereotyping and social stratification. (RefNo: LL)

Papers of Brenda Francis

Brenda Francis (fl. 1930s-1980s) was a London County Council (LCC)/Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) Advisory Teacher in the field of domestic science. This collection contains a large amount of material on educational subjects aimed at female students, including a photographic collection documenting these kinds of classes in progress. (RefNo: BF)

Papers of Cynthia Reynolds (1928-2008)

Marguerite Elizabeth Cynthia Reynolds also became an Advisory Teacher for the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), covering domestic science subjects, including parental education initiatives. This collection contains several items which consider equal opportunities in education. (RefNo: CR)