Education as a Political Issue

This text offers a detailed account of voters' attitudes to education as a political issue and the extent to which such attitudes affected their voting behaviour and political activity during the 1980s. Findings emphasise the constraints imposed on public knowledge by the ideological framework of educational debate. Attitude scales are developed and, finally, three theoretical positions are offered in an attempt to make sense of the diversity of attitudes, apparent contradictions and inevitable problems involved when definitions of reality are considered.