Reimagining education for a democratic future: comprehensive education and the unfinished promise of 1976
FORUM - Print ISSN 1474-7685 - Online ISSN 2047-7171
Volume 68 Number 3 (2026)
Reimagining education for a democratic future: comprehensive education and the unfinished promise of 1976
Daryn Egan-Simon pages 12‑20
DOI: 10.3898/forum.2026.68.3.02
Abstract
This article argues that the legacy of the 1976 Education Act should be understood not only as an unfinished struggle over school structures, but as an unfinished struggle over the democratic quality of education itself. While the act gestured towards the comprehensive principle, it neither ended selection nor secured the wider promise associated with comprehensive education. Fifty years on, selection persists through admissions arrangements, marketisation and school structures, but also through curriculum narrowing, pedagogical prescription and unequal access to rich educational experiences. Drawing on Caroline Benn and Lawrence Stenhouse, the article suggests that comprehensive education must mean more than nonselective schooling. It argues that the unfinished promise of 1976 requires renewed attention to curriculum, pedagogy and professional agency. Reimagining education for a democratic future means resisting the narrowing of educational experience and reclaiming comprehensive education as a democratic project concerned with curriculum, pedagogy and professional life.
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To cite this article
Daryn Egan-Simon (2026) Reimagining education for a democratic future: comprehensive education and the unfinished promise of 1976, FORUM, 68(3), 12-20 . https://doi.org/10.3898/forum.2026.68.3.02