Education, Law and Diversity

Neville Harris is Professor of Law at the University of Manchester.

This is ‘law in context’ scholarship at its finest. … It will be an invaluable tool for anyone undertaking research into any of the plethora of issues, debates and areas of legal practice covered here; for lawyers and non-lawyers alike. For child and family lawyers – for whom education law is still sometimes perceived as in some ways a marginal subject – it is not only an essential source but a reminder of the centrality of education in the lives of children and parents alike. It is also a reminder that education law disputes reveal and provoke the questions, and test to the limits the prevailing answers, about the fundamental nature of the relationships between parents, children and the state.

• 1. Children’s Education and the Law in a Diverse Society I. Introduction II. Rights III. Integration, Identity and Multiculturalism IV. Conclusion 2. Responsibility for Children’s Education I. Introduction II. Th e State’s Role in Supporting Access to Education III. Conclusion 3. Institutional Diversity in a Developing Schools System I. Introduction II. State Education: Separate National Systems within the UK III. Schools and Education: Th e Role of the State 1870–1980 IV. Towards a More Diverse Schools System: 1980–1997 7V. Diversity and Control of Schools Under ‘New Labour’ 1997–2010 VI. A New ‘Moral Order’? Education Reform Since 2010 VII. Conclusion 4. Equal Access for Children to Education Settings I. Introduction II. Equality and the Right to Education III. Th e Equality Act 2010 and Children’s Education IV. Conclusion 5. School Admission Policies and Decisions I. Introduction II. ‘Pupils are to be Educated in Accordance with the Wishes of their Parents’ III. Fair Admissions? IV. Th e Implications of School Preference V. Conclusion 6. Secular Education in the State Sector: A Curriculum for All? I. Introduction II. Centralisation and a National Curriculum III. ‘Fundamental British Values’ and Countering Extremism IV. Sex and Relationships Education and Health Education V. Conclusion 7. Religion in the School CurriculumI. Introduction II. Religious Education III. Collective Worship IV. Creationism and ‘Intelligent Design’ V. Conclusion 8. Education Outside the State Sector I. Introduction II. Regulation and Control of the Curriculum in Independent Schools III. Home Education and Unregistered Schooling IV. Conclusion 9. Special Educational Needs: Voice, Place and Choice I. Introduction II. SEND and Children and Young People in England III. Voice IV. Place V. Choice VI. Conclusion 10. Conclusion: Schooling for One and All?