Chapter 4: Categorizing the Data -- Public education policy documents totalled by decade

4

Categorizing the Data -- Public education policy documents totalled by decade

The following table/list shows the numbers:

Education Documents Counted

Decade	Education Documents Counted
1900 – 1909	14
1910 – 1919	22
1920 – 1929	20
1930 – 1939	24
1940 – 1949	19
1950 – 1959	33
1960 – 1969	78
1970 – 1979	167
1980 – 1983	52 (for 1980 to 1989,130 extrapolated)

   After sorting Goulson’s list by decade, I was able to count the commission reports and other governmental inquiries Goulson recorded. The count is derived from the documents sorted via Goulson’s list (discussed in section 1.2). Any previous decade to the 1950s is somewhat more than halved compared to production of 33 public education policy documents in 1950s decade. The 1900s decade has the lowest count for public education policy production for the century at 14. The count of documents produced in the 1960s decade at 78 is more than double that of the 1950s decade count of 33. This is in contrast to any previous decade where no doubling in consecutive years occurred. The differences in counts increment from 14 to 22 for the 1910 decade, an increase of 8. For the 1920s decade the count drops by 2. The count increases by 4 for the 1930s decade. The count drops by 5 for the 1940s decade. The noticeable decrease by 5 policy documents for the 1940s decade is obviously explained by the Second World War. The years from 1900 to 1948 are defined by the Baldwins as the “Years of Turmoil.” During these years of “turmoil” policy productions were reduced. Following the war the counts begin to increase dramatically. 

   For the years 1970 to 1979, it would seem that the production of public education policy documents has slightly more than doubled from the previous decade. The policy count for the 1970s decade is 167, more than four times the 1950s decade count. It is the case that the 1970s decade of public education policy production is a bit of an anomaly.  There are many more ‘Departmental’ and ‘Legislative’ documents for this decade, and a reduction in R1 documents and some work is required to select those key documents that are of consequence to an analysis across the broad possible range of 1970s documents. In the years 1970 to 1979 only three R1 documents were produced. On the matter of production of policy documents from 1980 to 1983 (the range of Goulson’s second book of education policy document production in Canada), there are no R1 documents
   Explanation for the steep rise in tertiary documents in the 1970 decade could be an indication of what was being analyzed by scholars as the emerging “failure of the welfare state,” economic failure and rising national debt, especially as one compares the numbers against the previous decades.  This is not to discount the matter of normal growth in Canada, where increases could be explained by population increase and economic growth especially post-war. In order to make adjustments in the “welfare state,” however, as well as obscure failures with the goal to increase public confidence, it may be the case that many more documents focussing on short-term goals and specific areas of public education policy were produced in the provinces and territories in this key decade. The increase could also be understood as a feature of changing politics, changing notions in democracy – where one large royal commission report is no longer sufficient to address multiple changes at such an elemental time in public education policy and national history.