Education for Democracy in England in World War II

Fred Clarke, the Institute of Education (London) and educational studies

“…) response to this was revealing: 'I do not see how we could have adopted any other line,' he replied to Oliver, adding: 'There are vast ranges of work to be undertaken that no one institution can hope to tackle, yet a start must be made somewhere, and if we are asked to do so we are willing to make it.' There was in this a recognition of the IOE's potential role in helping to organise the national field as a whole, while also asserting a view that partnerships rather than central control would be most appropriate, in line with the notions of liberal democracy that he and other influential educators commended for educational reform during the war (see Ku, 2020).…”

“…It was Clarke who presided over the early development of the IOE under its new title at the University of London as its director from 1936 to 1945. His role as a significant educational reformer is well established, based on his book Education and Social Change (Clarke, 1940) and his support for reforms leading to the Education Act of 1944 (McCulloch, 1994;Ku, 2013Ku, , 2020. He was a member of the McNair Committee, which helped to reshape teacher education after the Second World War (Crook, 1995), but it is less well known that he also helped to shape educational studies not only at the IOE but also at the national and international level.…”