DOCTORAL THESIS Nursery Schools or Nursery Classes? An analysis of national and local policy in England 1918-1972 Palmer, Amy Award date: 2013 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 02. Oct. 2021 Nursery Schools or Nursery Classes? An analysis of national and local policy in England 1918-1972 by Amy Palmer, MA (Cantab), MA A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD School of Education University of Roehampton 2013 1 Abstract This thesis makes a contribution to the study of education policy in England by analysing decisions taken by the Board of Education and its successor bodies from 1918 to 1972 concerning whether self-governing nursery schools or nursery classes attached to infant schools should be the preferred institution for pre-school education. It draws on documentary sources from Board/Ministry of Education files at the National Archives, from Local Authority records, and from the archives of other interested organisations, offering a qualitative analysis influenced by policy and decision-making theory. It argues that these decisions were determined both by fundamental beliefs about what nursery education was for, with schools seen as more suitable for promoting physical well-being and classes as better for easing transition to formal schooling, and by the fact that nursery education was a low political priority in which the limited resources made available were not sufficient for all children to experience the ideal. It demonstrates that the Board/Ministry operated largely as a policy making elite in this area, and neither the voices of the established policy network of educationalists nor marginalised constituencies such as working parents had a significant influence on the decisions. This exclusion militated against the successful implementation of policy. The thesis also analyses decisions made within four Local Education Authorities (LEAs): two which invested almost exclusively in nursery classes and two which established both schools and classes. These differences emerged prior to World War II and were caused by the varying values and beliefs of the education committees. Despite increased central control after the war, the established paths constrained new developments so that the original patterns largely persisted. Therefore, the local picture offers a small correction to the elitist model of 2 policymaking as it demonstrates that some voices outside central government had an impact on the implementation process. 3 Prefatory Note I have previously published an article in Paedagogica Historica which draws on an early draft for chapter six of this thesis: Palmer, Amy. “Nursery schools for the few or the many? Childhood, education and the state in mid-twentieth century England.” Paedagogica Historica XLVII, no. 1 & 2 (2011): 139-154. I have also published a chapter in an e-book which draws on material from a draft of chapter eight: Palmer, Amy. “Prudence or Madness: The History of Leicester‟s Nursery Classes 1927-1967.” In Children and Childhood: Practices and Perspectives, edited by Chadni Basu and Vicky Anderson-Patton, 31-44. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2013. https://www.interdisciplinarypress.net/online-store/ebooks/ethos-and-modern- life/children-and-childhood 4 Nursery Schools or Nursery Classes? An analysis of national and local policy in England 1918-1972 Abstract ………………………………………………………………………….. 2 Prefatory Note……………………………………………………………………. 4 Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………. 5 Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………….. 10 Chapter One: Introduction………………………………………………………. 11 1:1 Overview of the thesis………………………………………………………….. 11 1:2 A personal rationale……………………………………………………………. 13 1:3 Early years provision in England today………………………………………... 14 1:4 The shape of the historical investigation……………………………………….. 18 1:5 Underpinning theory…………………………………………………………… 22 1:6 Research questions and structure of the thesis…………………………………. 24 Chapter Two: Literature Review……………………………………………….. 27 2:1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….. 27 2:2 Definitions……………………………………………………………………… 27 2:3 Theoretical underpinnings: Policy analysis……………………………………. 29 2:4 Theoretical underpinnings: Application of policy theory to the history of education…………………………………………………………………………… 38 2:5 A historiography of nursery education policy in England……………………... 44 2:6 Contextualising literature: The wider history of English education policy……. 56 2:7 Contextualising literature: History of education and Local Education Authorities …………………………………………………………………………………….. 62 2:8 Summary of existing knowledge regarding the nursery school/nursery class question…………………………………………………………………………...... 71 5 2:9 Conclusion: Justification of the research questions……………………………. 75 Chapter Three: Methodology and Methods…………………………………….. 77 3:1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….. 77 3:2 Location within the field of history of education ……………………………… 77 3:3 Overview of research design…………………………………………………… 81 3:4 Ethical considerations………………………………………………………….. 85 3:5 The selection of documents…………………………………………………….. 89 3:6 Reading and interpreting documents…………………………………………… 94 3:7 Gathering data, coding and retrieving………………………………………… 102 3:8 Interpretation: Building a coherent account…………………………………... 103 3:9 Interpretation: Answering the research questions…………………………….. 107 3:10 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………… 114 Chapter Four: “The purely experimental stage”: The 1918 Education Act… 115 4:1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………… 115 4:2 Early reports on educational provision for the under fives………… ………… 118 4:3 The Education Bill of 1913-1914…………………………………………….. 124 4:4 The recommendations of the Office Committee……………………………. 127 4.5 A nascent advocacy coalition for nursery schools……………………………. 130 4:6 Other participants in the process: Elements of dissent………………………... 135 4:7 First draft of the 1918 Education Bill………………………………………… 141 4:8 Revision of the Education Bill………………………………………………... 143 4:9 The impact of the nursery school clause in the 1918 Education Act…………. 149 4:10 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….. 153 6 Chapter Five: Solutions for Normal and Abnormal Children: The 1933 Hadow Report…………………………………………………………………………….. 157 5:1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………… 157 5:2 The reverberation of the 1918 Education Act: questions of definition……….. 161 5:3 The reverberation of the 1918 Education Act: a “stop-go” policy……………. 163 5:4 The significance of the advocacy coalition in the 1920s……………………... 169 5:5 The referral to the Consultative Committee…………………………………. 172 5:6 Formation and working of the committee…………………………………… 174 5:7 Teachers and the nursery school/class question: Muddy waters……………… 177 5:8 The Board‟s inspectors and medical officers and the nursery school/class question: A continuum of opinion………………………………………………. 179 5:9 Local Education Authorities and the nursery school/class question: Circumspection……………………………………………………………………. 182 5:10 Other educational organisations and the nursery school/class question: An alternative model………………………………………………………………….. 183 5:11 Non-educational organisations: Maintaining the frame……………………. 186 5:12 The committee‟s position…………………………………………………… 188 5:13 Nursery education after Hadow …………………………………………….. 193 5:14 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………… 198 Chapter Six: Nursery Schools for the many: The 1944 Education Act………. 202 6:1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………… 202 6:2 Nursery education prior to World War II…………………………………….. 207 6:3 The decision between education and childcare……………………………….. 208 6:4 Early plans for education after the war………………………………………. 212 6:5 A sudden change of perspective………………………………………………. 216 6:6 The position in the White Paper……………………………………………… 221 6:7 The Nursery School Association: Useful for propaganda…………………… 223 7 6:8 National Union of Teachers: Selfish concerns……………………………….. 228 6:9 Local Education Authorities: Demands for flexibility……………………….. 230 6:10 Working mothers: Obfuscation and disempowerment………………………. 234 6:11 The fate of the policy in the post-war period………………………………. 235 6:12 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………… 239 Chapter Seven: “An ad hoc amalgam”: The Plowden Report……………….. 243 7:1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………… 243 7:2 The 1950s: The descent of the great freeze…………………………………… 246 7:3 The impact of the great freeze on the Ministry‟s preference for nursery schools ……………………………………………………………………………………. 252 7:4 The impact of the great freeze on nursery education advocates……………… 255 7:5 An increase of pressure in the 1960s………………………………………….. 256 7:6 Referral to the Plowden Committee…………………………………………... 259 7:7 The views of the policy network…………………………………………….. 261 7:8 The Plowden Committee and the question of working mothers……………… 265 7:9 The final recommendations……………………………………………………