James Tooley – författare

With higher education in the UK at a critical juncture in its history, two leading commentators offer new perspectives on the fundamentals of this on-going debate. Seville examines the implications of 'modularity' , while Tooley presents a comprehensive critique of government intervention in the university system, questioning whether the state has to be involved at all.

The first edition of this pioneering book produced surprising conclusions from research around the world into the extent of private education. James Tooley challenged the prevailing wisdom that private education fosters social and economic inequality. On the contrary, he found that the private sector, as well as being innovative, often provides creative social responsibility programmes, subsidised places and student loan schemes. He concluded with a proposal about the role of for-profit education enterprises in promoting equitable development. In this second edition, Professor Tooley contributes a new preface which shows how his work has developed and extended into other countries. In particular, he provides a fascinating account of how private education is flourishing in China.

HIV and Aids teaching is compulsory in British schools but the content is not prescribed. Should teaching in such a difficult field, where there are disputes among experts, be left to secondary school teachers with no specialist knowledge? And is it right that the subject should be compulsory? These awkward issues are confronted in this controversial paper which examines the materials being used by schools in HIV/Aids teaching and how teachers are approaching the subject. The authors conclude that, because of material provided by pressure groups, teachers are exaggerating the Aids problem and failing to stress the extent to which the risk of infection depends on behaviour. Rent-seeking by vested interests results in a serious distortion of the views presented to children. Their conclusion about Britain is that HIV/Aids teaching should no longer be compulsory. Either the law should be repealed or schools should simply drop the subject.

This selection of E G West's papers contains a wealth of economic and philosophical analysis which can guide policymakers in the field of Education. They also show how state monopoly provision of education has led to a particular model of schooling which does not work for many of those who use the education system -- parents and children. Perhaps the most valuable contribution of these papers, though, is their historical analysis. The extent to which education systems developed in the UK and the USA before either compulsory schooling or dominant state finance emerged is remarkable. E.G. West also analyses the debate between those who believe that the state should control education in order to shape the thinking of the younger generation, and those who believe in a purist system. He demonstrates how universal state provision of education is the model that is least likely to benefit the poor, although they could benefit substantially from programmes to help them fund their education.In an era when there is increasing dissatisfaction with state education provision, but in which the state has ever greater control of the curriculum -- including the teaching of 'citizenship' -- and management of schools, the papers in Occasional Paper 130 have never been more relevant.

Functional illiteracy, youth delinquency and lack of technological innovation all point to the failures of state schooling. They raise the question of why governments should be involved in education at all. One justification for state intervention in education is that, without it, there would not be educational opportunities for all. However, the great majority of people would not need state intervention for funding or provision of educational opportunities. Intervention would at most be required for a minority in need of financial support. This conclusion is supported by historical evidence from Victorian England and Wales, and from more recent experience around the world, of educational entrepreneurs stepping in to provide desired opportunities where state education is failing. A second justification offered is that equality of opportunity requires state intervention in education. When the record is examined, it is not clear that states anywhere have been able to provide equality. Strong theoretical arguments undermine the suggestion that they ever would.Moreover, arguments against 'markets' in schooling which purport to show how they increase inequality actually point to problems not with markets, but with state regulation and provision themselves. Many influential philosophers and economists agree that justice or fairness requires that everyone has adequate opportunities. But markets - with a funding safety-net - could provide adequate opportunities for all, and more effectively than further state intervention. A final justification is that state regulation of, inter alia, the curriculum is required. Lessons from the recent history of the national curriculum illustrate the general undesirability of government intervention in the curriculum. The problems of 'competing visions' and the 'knowledge problem' and considerations of the nature of education point to the folly of not leaving decisions to parents and young people themselves. If state intervention in education is not justified, except for a funding safety-net, how can we move towards markets in education? A simple proposal is put forward, linked to recent discussion of the learning society and lifelong learning accounts.Lowering the school leaving age to 14, and simultaneously giving young people two years' state funding for them to use in a Lifelong Individual Fund for Education (LIFE) would help liberate the educational demand side which, coupled with liberation of the supply side, would lead to an enlivening and nurturing of the enterprise of education.

The authors of Education, War & Peace travelled to Liberia, Sierra Leone and South Sudan to conduct research on education in these conflict-affected countries. They uncovered an inspiring story of entrepreneurs stepping into the breach and providing low-cost private schooling to large numbers of children in areas where government was not working well and basic infrastructure had been destroyed. For-profit schools also expanded quickly to soak up educational demand once the conflicts were over. The fees were affordable to families on the poverty line and the children did better academically than those in government schools. Yet international agencies continue to promote government-run schools, even though state education has been a major source of both conflict and corruption in these countries. This groundbreaking study advocates a different approach. Low-cost private schools should be welcomed by policymakers as a means of providing high quality educational opportunities for all.

"Current education policy is not in the interests of women. An injustice is being perpetrated."--James Tooley in the Introduction To what extent has feminism benefited women? To what extent have women really been liberated? James Tooley argues that the implication of many women's testimony is that feminism so far has failed to deliver the promised benefits and has even in some ways proved harmful. Bringing together many women's voices, from Simone de Beauvoir to Bridget Jones, he provides a radical rethinking for feminism and sexual politics in the twenty-first century.

To what extent has feminism benefited women? To what extent have women really been liberated? James Tooley argues that the implication of many women's testimony is that feminism so far has failed to deliver the promised benefits and has even in some ways proved harmful. Bringing together many women's voices, from Bridget Jones to Simone de Beauvoir, he provides a radical rethinking for feminism and sexual politics in the 21st century.

What is wrong with education? Why do educational reforms always miss their target? How can we create a better education system? And what can we learn from other countries? Reclaiming Education tackles the challenges facing education that really matter - hte ones that academics often ignore, parents demand solution to and politicians need to confront. Drawing on his global research, James Tooley shows that there is an alternative to poor quality and wasteful inefficiency in education, and that education can be radically transformed to guarantee freedom and higher standards. "Tooley radically challenges any complacency we may have about education in the 21st century." Sir Bob Salisbury "Tooley is an extremist: some of his ideas are outrageous!" Professor Geoffrey Walford, University of Oxford "This is truly a radical book. It should be read by everyone who thinks deeply about education." Sir Christopher Ball

E.G. West is indisputably a major thinker in education. James Tooley's volume offers the most coherent account of West's educational thought. This work is divided into: intellectual biography; critical exposition of West's work; the reception and influence of West's work; and, the relevance of the work today.This is a major international reference series providing comprehensive accounts of the work of seminal educational thinkers from a variety of periods, disciplines and traditions. It is the most ambitious and prestigious such project ever published - a definitive resource for at least a generation. The thinkers include: Aquinas, Aristotle, Bourdieu, Bruner, Dewey, Foucault, Freire, Holt, Kant, Locke, Montessori, Neill, Newman, Owen, Peters, Piaget, Plato, Rousseau, Steiner, Vygotsky, West, and Wollstonecraft.

That governments are, and will always be, involved in education, is taken for granted by the majority of educationalists. Recent market reforms are condemned, because they appear to undermine state intervention in education. But are justifications for state intervention in education philosophically sound? Is the attack on markets justified? In Disestablishing the School, Dr Tooley explores these issues, setting recent educational policy debates in the broader context of debates in moral and political philosophy, and philosophy of economics. Topical issues to do with equality of opportunity, education for democracy, education for autonomy, democratic control of the curriculum, and education as a public good are examined. None of these survive as a critique of markets in education, nor as a justification for state intervention in education. In undermining these arguments, Dr Tooley argues that the case for the disestablishment of the school, for the separation of school and state, can be philosophically sustained.

Considers the philosophical debates surrounding equality and education. This title covers issues such as: What is Educational Equality? Why Does Educational Equality Matter? And is Educational Equality Possible? It highlights the critical perspectives that philosophy can bring to bear on education policy and provides a discussion of the issues.

Girls and boys are different. So why do our schools insist on treating them as identical? Could this misguided equality have anything to do with the increasing dissatisfaction among women that is revealed in survey after survey? Do gender-blind educational policies in fact work to women's disadvantage? Bringing together many women's voices, from Bridget Jones to Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan to Germaine Greer, James Tooley challenges education's sacred cows, demanding a radical rethinking of sexual politics and a fairer way forward for women. The Miseducation of Women landed like a bombshell when it was published in England a few months ago; but Mr. Tooley's book, replete with examples and anecdotes from the United States as well as Great Britain, has equal application to the gender arguments on this side of the Atlantic.

That governments are, and will always be, involved in education, is taken for granted by the majority of educationalists. Recent market reforms are condemned, because they appear to undermine state intervention in education. But are justifications for state intervention in education philosophically sound? Is the attack on markets justified? In Disestablishing the School, Dr Tooley explores these issues, setting recent educational policy debates in the broader context of debates in moral and political philosophy, and philosophy of economics. Topical issues to do with equality of opportunity, education for democracy, education for autonomy, democratic control of the curriculum, and education as a public good are examined. None of these survive as a critique of markets in education, nor as a justification for state intervention in education. In undermining these arguments, Dr Tooley argues that the case for the disestablishment of the school, for the separation of school and state, can be philosophically sustained.