State secondary schooling for all

Down, B. (2000) State secondary schooling for all. Education Research Perspectives, 27 (1). pp. 57-80.

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Abstract

This paper explores the major reasons for the rapid extension of state secondary schooling in Western Australia after 1945. The first part of the paper will elaborate the inherent contradictions and tensions facing liberal democratic states and the implications for understanding why there was such a rapid and dramatic shift to an education system that saw secondary schooling as the right of ail children. The second part will consider the arguments surrounding the emergence of the comprehensive high school and the consequences for secondary school organisation and reform.