This book, first published in 1988, examines the development of secondary comprehensive education from the 1960s to the 1980s. Tensions and transformations in the meaning and practice of ‘comprehensive’ and ‘progressive’ education within the state education sector are examined and described. The main themes throughout the collection are the deepening crisis of comprehensive education and the profound restructuring which is taking place in secondary education as a result of current government policy. This title will be of interest to students of education and sociology.