The struggle for comprehensive education in the Netherlands: the representation of secondary school innovation in Dutch newspaper articles in the 1970s

Abstract

This article focuses on how Dutch newspapers represented the debate in the Netherlands in the 1970s on comprehensive education and thus influenced the Dutch Middle School experiment. Wiborg's identification of key factors of success in Scandinavia was used as a point of reference. The article shows that these key factors did not exist in the Netherlands because of the polarisation of liberals and social democrats. Furthermore, the article shows how newspapers played different roles, varying from disseminators of new ideas to sparking debate and from communicators of political views to a barometer, consequently influencing the political strategies chosen.

Rise and fall of the comprehensive school idea in the Netherlands. Political and educational debates on the Middle School project (1969–1993)

“…The main argument for introducing comprehensive schools was to create equal opportunities in education for all children regardless of their socioeconomic roots. Through postponed selection, school choice could become more consistent with children’s talents and interests (Amsing et al, 2013). Next to social justice it was recognised that the inequality of chances for working-class children was also an economic problem (Bakker and Amsing, 2012).…”

“…Moreover, almost no secondary schools were formed which combined pre-university, general and vocational education tracks. The result was that the existing hierarchical system of secondary school tracks did not disappear (Amsing et al, 2013; Deen, 1971).…”

“…In 2007 they published a report about moving up in education and the development of children’s talents (Onderwijsraad, 2007), and in 2010 they published a further report about early selection (Onderwijsraad, 2010). The same concern was voiced on an international level, for instance by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), criticising the Dutch early selection at the age of 12, because it could limit the development of children’s academic abilities (Amsing et al, 2013; Marginson et al, 2008).…”

“…The Dutch comprehensive school was known as Middenschool or Middle School. Although supporting the international debate on ‘going comprehensive’, the Dutch Middle School was never realised, with the exception of some experimental ones (Amsing et al, 2013; Greveling et al, 2014).…”

The Italian middle school in a deregulation era: modernity through path-dependency and global models

“…Historical and comparative scholarship (Wiborg, 2009(Wiborg, , 2010Clarke, 2009;Amsing, Greveling & Dekker, 2013) indicates reasons why the comprehensive school has been successful in some European countries but not in others. Other sociological studies have engaged with paradoxes and limitations (West & Hind, 2006).…”