British Journal of Educational Studies, ISSN 0007-1005 Vol. 50, No. 2, June 2002, pp 254–278 254 © Blackwell Publishers Ltd. and SCSE 2002. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Steet, Malden, MA 02148, USA Blackwell Science Ltd Oxford, UK BJES British Journal of Educational Studies 0007-1005 © Blackwell Publishers Ltd and SCSE 2002 June 2002 50 2 1 000 Original Article POLICY ON SCHOOL DIVERSITY: TAKING AN EXISTENTIAL TURN IN THE PURSUIT OF VALUED LEARNING? by Philip A Woods and Glenys J Woods, The Open University ABSTRACT: This paper develops a ‘conceptual map’ by which to chart contemporary developments in policy on school diversity. 1 In part this has been prompted by the prospect in England of (private) Steiner schools becoming more closely involved in mainstream state-funded education. Whilst generated principally by policy developments within the UK, the conceptual thinking may also have wider applicability. We conceptualise diversity in the context of a differentiating public domain and a concern with existential questions which, arguably, persists in educational policy even where narrow ‘performative’ criteria are dominant. Four diversity models are outlined and a policy path over time suggested in relation to these. We suggest that this may be leading towards diversity policy which affords greater recognition to different conceptions of valued learning and encourages co-operative exploration of these, though it is acknowledged that there remain strong contrary pressures. Keywords: policy, school diversity, Steiner 1. Policy Background Diversity of schooling – an integral part of Conservative market and choice-orientated educational policy till 1997 – continues as a signi- ficant policy theme under Labour. Featured in opposition (Blunkett, 1996), school diversity has been developed in government within the context of Labour’s dominant policy themes: raising standards of measured educational achievement, ‘zero tolerance’ of failure, inter- vention in inverse proportion to success, targeting of disadvantage and low achievement, partnership in place of competition, identi- fication of excellence and dissemination of ‘what works’, and so on. Accordingly, in the secondary sector, numbers of specialist schools have grown to more than 400 (due to rise to a thousand by 2003 and 1,500 by 2006), with new specialist options being introduced in