My father, Roy Shaw, was a leading figure in adult education and arts policy in the late 20th Century. He didn’t write a major book, but in numerous articles and lectures— many written while he held major policy roles—he laid out a distinctive egalitarian approach to education and the arts. Alongside writers like Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart (his best friend), Roy was part of the generation of thinkers from working-class backgrounds who developed the distinctive approach to culture and society associated with the early 1960s New Left. In conjunction with the Keele events, I have used my father’s papers as well as published sources to write this draft article on his work:
A fairly recent booklet, Changing Lives and Transforming Communities: Harnessing the Power of Post-Compulsory Education, published by UCU would certainly have been of interest to Roy Shaw Things have changed but many of the issues identified by him have still not been resolved. One example would be his view about “the synthesis of liberalism and vocationalism” which, despite recent policy initiatives, is still really a non-starter. The current school curriculum and high stakes exam system would require a major overhaul which the Labour Government is not prepared to do.
On a personal ( perhaps somewhat trivial!) note I must say I couldn’t stand Ken Dodd whose political views I found problematical. My own preference was for Tony Hancock to whom I devote a whole chapter in my own autobiography showing how this slice of popular culture contributed to my own political and cultural development certainly as much as if not more than the high brow stuff I was reading at school.