On our Selection

However, I disagree with his article above. I don't think that Ian has succeeded in laying to rest the education politics of of the 1970s and 1980s, although he has uncovered some limitations and weaknesses. Nor has he succeeded in justifying what he sees as the alternative: the meritocratic practices of grading, sorting and selecting in education, which were the unquestioned orthodoxy of the 1950s and most of the 1960s, and still dominate the educa­ tion system. Hunter sees the demand for in education in nar­ row terms, as the demand for equality of qualification, a refusal by teachers to engage in these practices of grading and selecting to the extent that limits are placed on what students can do after they leave education. This has been an important form of educational equality, but it is not the only form.