Changes in the classification and framing of education in Britain, 1950s to 2000s: an interpretive essay after Bernstein

Using the concepts of classification and framing and other relevant writings by Basil Bernstein, an attempt will be made to construct a theorised account of changes in the socio-political context of education in Britain; of the mode of governance in education and of the constructs and practice of educational leadership from the 1950s to the present day. These changes will be examined in three political-ideological periods in British educational history to show how Basil Bernstein's assertion that 'pedagogic communication is a relay for patterns of dominance external to itself [The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse, vol. IV, Class, Codes and Control (London: Routledge, 1990), 169] is mediated in each historical period by the classification and framing relationships existing in the nexus of state, economy and schooling.