Call for papers: The Moment of ‘76

Posted on 06/05/2026

FORUM: for promoting 3 to 19 comprehensive education

Call for papers: The Moment of ‘76

Contributions are invited for the autumn 2026 number of FORUM (68.3) for which the copy date is Monday 20 July.  The number will appear online at the beginning of November with a hard copy version available soon afterwards.

This November marks 50 years since the 1976 Education Act sought to enshrine the comprehensive principle in English law. The Act’s first clause said that ‘…local education authorities shall have regard to the general principle that such education is to be provided only in schools where the arrangements for the admission of pupils are not based (wholly or partly) on selection by reference to ability or aptitude’. But, as Caroline Benn and Clyde Chitty, observed, the Act did not in fact include a legal requirement to end selection.

So did the 1976 Act matter? Was it symbol rather than substance? Did it mark high water for the movement for comprehensive education and the turning of the tide? What does the Act tell us about the times it came from? Times in which a fourth Black Paper appeared as part of a concerted assault by the New Right on comprehensive schooling, and the prime minister chose to launch a national debate about education.

And what does the moment of 1976 tell us, 50 years on, about our own time?

The autumn issue will also mark the centenary of the birth of Caroline Benn, and of Lawrence Stenhouse. Their work advanced the cause of radical comprehensive and progressive teaching and learning, including in initial teacher education. As well as co-founding the Comprehensive Education Movement and writing two major accounts of the development of comprehensive schooling, Caroline Benn taught in adult education and served as chair of governors of Holland Park School and as a co-opted member of the Inner London Education Authority. She consistently advocated the abolition of academic selection and wrote many articles for FORUM. Lawrence Stenhouse saw education’s emancipatory potential. His academic writing upheld the view that teaching is an art not an instrumental technology, and that teachers should be researchers of their own practice. His work on curriculum projects to do with the humanities and ‘race relations’ importantly influenced a generation of teachers and educational academics.

We invite articles for the autumn number which engage with any, or all, of these anniversaries. Articles might explore the nature and importance of the 1976 Act or speak to the significance of the wider ‘moment of ‘76’. They might consider why the work and example of Caroline Benn and/or Lawrence Stenhouse remain vital today. They might reflect on how our current education system can be redirected towards the path signposted by the 1976 Act and the principles espoused by Benn and Stenhouse.

FORUM welcomes writing which is heartfelt as well as thought-through. There’s no set length for a FORUM article – although many weigh in at about 4000 words, many are shorter. Nor is there a set way of writing an article. We certainly welcome academic papers, but personal reflections, critically alert consideration of issues and experiences, and informed discursive writing are welcome too, as are texts written by more than one person.

If you would like to discuss the possibility of contributing, please get in touch.

Patrick Yarker
Editor, FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education
patyarker@aol.com