Beyond the Millennium (or Whatever Happened to the Ennoblement of Life?

Departments of education were founded in British universities at the end of the nineteenth century. They were designed to serve two purposes. First, they were to raise the status of school‐teaching from a craft to a science; and secondly, they were to induct school teachers into the Newtonian presumptions of a science of teaching and learning. During the 1960s, this professional paradigm fell into decline and disrepute. University departments of education in Britain lost their social mission. This paper appraises the events of the last 100 years and offers a perspective for the future. [1] Inaugural Lecture on appointment as Professor of Education, University of Liverpool, delivered on 21 October 1991.