ABSTRACT
Most of the chapters in this book contain five essays, but two chapters – on the international and political challenges facing independent schools – have, respectively, eight and seven. The reason for this is simply that both areas are particularly complex, and are evolving rapidly – we have attempted to capture this sense of flux by bringing in more voices. But no doubt at some point in the future lengthier books than this will be written about a period of global tumultuous change, and education will feature in there. Independent schools will appear as well, possibly, as John Blake writes here, as powerful symbols of societal change (or lack of change), or, hopefully, as more active participants in bringing about greater equality.
