Conservativeness And Progress:A Study Of English Public Schools After World War Ⅱ

As independent aristocratic schools,the English public schools were famous for their elite education.However,after World War Ⅱ,the public schools were criticized for their old-fashioned curriculum,corrupt school spirts,manufacturing class gap,etc.The Labour Party that devoted to help states schools and promote equal education,also put pressure on public schools’ survival and development.Under so much pressure,the public school experienced a difficult development and carried out drastic reforms.According to the focus of public schools’ reforms,the reforming process of the post-war period can be divided into three stages.In 1950s,Public schools mainly to rebuild the campus to attract students,reform the examination system to respond to the trend of equal education.The 1960s to 1970s named "Public School Revolution Period",public schools made huge reforms,such as updating the curriculum,introducing co-education.From 1980s to now,public schools achieved new developments and set up satellite branches overseas to expand international influence.Adopting the methods of documentation,historical research and case study,this dissertation makes a thorough study of the English public schools’ reforms after World War Ⅱ in three chapters.The first chapter mainly combs the development and reforms of public schools after the war,according to the development stage and characteristics of public school to sort out:reconstruction period of development from 1945 to 1963;the Public School Revolution Period from 1964 to 1979;contemporary developments and reforms period from 1980 to 2015.The second chapter carries out special studies on public schools’ reforms based on the history of the first chapter,including the reforms of educational philosophy,curriculum and management system and so on.The third chapter makes a further study to find out the essences of the existence of public schools through the historical facts and sum up the theories of the reforms basing on the Chapter I and Chapter II.The conclusion part makes public schools analogy of Chinese independent schools and key secondary schools,to provide some suggestions for the education of our country with the idea embodied in the process of public school reforms.