Michael Duane (head teacher)

Infobox Person
name = "(William) Michael Duane"


image_size =
caption =
birth_date = 1915
birth_place = Ireland
death_date = 1997
education = Dominican School, Archway, London; Jesuits School, Stamford Hill; Institute of Education; University of Nottingham
occupation = head teacher

(William) Michael Duane (1915-1997), known for his 'progressive' educational views, his belief in inclusivity and a multi-racial approach, his encouragement of informal relationships between staff and pupils and his opposition to corporal punishmentcite web
last = Institute of Education Archives
title = DC/MD Papers of (William) Michael Duane
url = http://ioewebserver.ioe.ac.uk/ioe/cms/get.asp?cid=9347&9347_0=15312
accessdate = 05 October 2008] . He is probably best known as the head of the controversial short-lived Risinghill School in Islington.

Biography

Early life and education

He was born in Ireland in 1915 and lived in Dublin until his family moved to London when he was 10 years old. He was educated at Dominican School at Archway, London before going to the Jesuits' School, Stamford Hill [cite web
title = Michael Duane
url = http://www.risinghill.co.uk/md.htm
accessdate = 05 October 2008] . He trained as a teacher at the Institute of Education, University of London, before taking up at teaching post at Dame Alice Owen's School, Islington, until joined World War II in 1940.

War service

During the War he was promoted to Second Lieutenant(1941), Captain (1942), Staff Captain (1942) and Major (1945). In 1946 he received medals for bravery including the Chevalier De L’Ordre De Leopold II Avec Palme and the Croix De Guerre Avec Palme. He was demobilised in 1946 [cite web
title = Michael Duane
url = http://www.risinghill.co.uk/md.htm
accessdate = 05 October 2008]

Post-War career

After the War he briefly returned to Dame Alice Owen's School before becoming a lecturer at the Institute of Education.

In 1948 Duane was appointed the head teacher of a newly opened school, Howe Dell Secondary School in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and at the time was one of the youngest heads in the country [cite web
title = Michael Duane
url = http://www.risinghill.co.uk/md.htm
accessdate = 05 October 2008] . Duane was given five years 'with no questioned asked' to established the schoolcite web
last = Institute of Education Archives
title = Papers of Michael Duane MD/2 Howe Dell Secondary School, Hatfield
url = http://archive.ioe.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo='MD/2')
accessdate = 05 October 2008] . Until the school was ready, Duane was temporarily appointed the head of Beaumont Secondary Modern School in St. Albans for one term. Duane took charge of Howe Dell in 1949, and implemented a democratic multi-racial progressive policy which rejected corporal punishment. Duane's policies were criticised by the authoritarian head of the school governors and he was faced with an inadequate building and pupils with varying levels of education. Duane faced further criticisms after he was appointed a Justice of the Peace and nominate as the Labour Party candidate in the local elections. The school was accused of lack of discipline and impropriety and failed a HMI inspection in 1950. The Governors gave a vote of no confidence and called for Duane's dismissal. The case for dismissal was thrown out by the Hertfordshire County Council Education Committee, but Duane resigned and the school was closed in 1951.

Duane moved onto another headship at Alderman Woodrow Secondary Boys' School, Lowestoft, Suffolk in 1952. His time at this school was less problematic, though he did come into conflict with the Suffolk Education Authority over the allocation grammar school places [cite web
last = Institute of Education Archives
title = Papers of Michael Dunae MD/3 Alderman Woodrow School, Lowestoft
url = http://archive.ioe.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo='MD/3')
accessdate = 05 October 2008] . After a good inspection report, Duane felt it was time to move on and left in 1959.

Risinghill School

In 1959, Duane became the head of the comprehensive Risinghill School in Islington, the post which was to make him a famous figure. The secondary school was an amalgamation of four other local schools and included pupils of nineteen different nationalities from variety of backgrounds and abilitiescite web
last = Institute of Education Archives
title = Papers of Michael Duane MD/4 Risinghill School, Islington
url =http://archive.ioe.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqSearch=(RefNo='MD/4')
accessdate = 05 October 2008] . He was also faced with shortasges of staff and a poorly built building. Duane introduced a non-authoritarian programme of pastoral care, pupil democracy, frank sex education, close cooperation with parents, promotion of creativity and multi-culturalism. He refused to expel pupils, as he felt it was illegal as secondary education was compulsory. Duane clashed with the London County Council and the the HM Inspectorate over his policies and in 1962 the school was brought into controversy over an account of Duane's sex education lessons which were published anonymously by Duane [cite journal
last = Duanel
first = M
title = Sex education: a small experiment
journal = Family Planning
volume = 11
issue = 2
date = 1961] . The school received an hostile inspection report which recommended the reintroduction of corporal punishment and expulsion, but Duane refused. In 1965, the newly formed Inner London Education Authority decided to close the school.

The case became well known largely due to the publication of "Risinghill: Death of a Comprehensive School" by Leila Berg in 1968.

Later career

After Risinghill controversy, Duane was never appointed a head teacher again. He became a lecturer at Garnett College of Education and wrote and lectured on his educational philosophies. In 1977 he received a MPhil from the University of Nottingham for his research on The Terrace, an experimental ROSLA (raising of the school leaving age) scheme to provide education for 15 year olds who no long saw relevance in standard education based at Dartington Hall School. He later published his research in 1995 [cite book
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = The Terrace: An Educational Experiment in a State School
publisher = Freedom Press
date = 1995
location = London] . Michael Duane died in January 1997.

Primary sources

The papers of Michael Duane are held in the Archives of the Institute of Education, University of London and a full catalogue is available [http://archive.ioe.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=NaviTree.tcl&dsqField=RefNo&dsqItem=MD#HERE on-line] .

Publications and writings

*cite journal
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Drama in Schools
journal = The Derbyshire Countryside
date = January 1943
*cite journal
last = Duanel, M (published anonymously)
title = Sex education: a small experiment
journal = Family Planning
volume = 11
issue = 2
date = 1961
*Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
author-link =
title = Parents and discipline: lessons from a tough-area school
newspaper = The Sunday Telegraph
date = 25 April 1965
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = The Stench of hypocrisy
journal = Education
volume = 31
issue = 22
date = May 1968
*Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Headmaster's View of the Risinghill Story
newspaper = Morning Star
date = 18 June 1968
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = The Risinghill Myth
journal = New Society
pages = 91-92
date = 20 June 1968
*Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Children are not factory Fodder
newspaper = Peace News
date = 21 June 1968
*Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Comprehensives in dangers of perpetuating middle-class elitist assumptions
newspaper = The Times Educational Supplement
date = 12 Jul 1968
*Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Good relationships - the life blood of teaching -are poisoned by assumptions taken from the industry and competitive Society
newspaper = The Times Educational Supplement
date = 19 Jul 1968
*Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = How we ought to train teachers
newspaper = The Times Educational Supplement
date = 26 Jul 1968
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Education in Britain today
journal = Education for Democracy
editor = D. Rubinstein and C. Stoneman
Publisher = Penguin
place = Harmondsworth
date = 1970
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = The Training of Teachers
journal = Education for the Seventies: Transcriptions of the Cambridge Union Teach-In
Publisher = Heinemann
place = London
date = 1970
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = The Seminar: a dilemma
journal = Teachers' World
date = 3 March 1971
*cite book
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = New Developments in British Secondary Education
publisher = ECF
date = 1971
location = Amsterdam
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = A Summerhill school meeting
journal = Children’s Rights
volume = 2
pages = 29-30
date = 1971
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Why Exams?
journal = Children’s Rights
volume = 5
date = 1971
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Freedom and the state system of education
journal = Children’s Rights
place = London
date = 1972
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = In my innocence
journal = Drama in Education
place = London
date = 1973
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = The Children we deserve
journal = Discipline in Schools
place = London
date = 1973
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = A.S Neill and Summerhill
journal = Teachers' World
date = 19 October 1973
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Towards a definition of intelligence
journal = Education & Training
date = December 1973
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Towards that happy State
journal = Teachers' World
date = 18 October 1974
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = R.I – why Compulsory
journal = Teachers' World
date = 2 May 1975
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Freedom for Children
journal = Teachers' bookshelf - a teachers World supplement
date = 29 October 1976
*cite book
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Work, Language & Education in the Industrial State
publisher = Freedom Press
date = 1991
location = London
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = To Vote or Not To Vote?
journal = The Raven
volume = 4
issue = 2
date = 1991
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = The Seeds of Its Own Destruction or Education in Capitalist Britain
journal = The Raven
volume = 4
issue = 4
date = 1991
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Education for What?: a guide to the Dartington Hall Experiment
journal = Contemporary Issues in Education and Geography
volume = 32
pages = 113-139
date = 1991
* Citation
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = Church, State and Freedom
journal = The Raven
volume = 7
issue = 1
date = 1994
*cite book
last = Duane
first = Michael
title = The Terrace: An Educational Experiment in a State School
publisher = Freedom Press
date = 1995
location = London

Writings on Duane

* Citation
last = Limond
first = David
title = Risinghill and the Ecology of Fear
journal = Educational Review
volume = 54
issue = 2
date = June 2002
url = http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713664142~db=all
* Citation
last = Limond
first = David
title = Michael Duane after Risinghill: Rise and fall of an educational celebrity
journal = Journal of Educational Administration and History
volume = 37
issue = 1
date = April 2005
url = http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713726347~db=all
* Citation
last = Limond
first = David
title = Frequently but naturally: William Michael Duane, Kenneth Charles Barnes and teachers as innovators in sex(uality) education in English adolescent schooling: c. 1945–1965
journal = Sex Education
volume = 5
issue = 2
date = May 2005
url = http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/csed/2005/00000005/00000002/art00001

ee also

* Leila Berg

External links

* [http://ioewebserver.ioe.ac.uk/ioe/cms/get.asp?cid=9347&9347_0=15312 Papers of Michael Duane at the Institute of Education, University of London]
* [http://www.risinghill.co.uk Risinghill School website]

References