Rhoda Power, BBC Radio, and Mass Education, 1922-1957

Abstract

This article considers the relationship between BBC radio and mass secondary education in Britain through the life of innovative schools History broadcaster Rhoda Dolores Le Poer Power (1890-1957). It argues that during the mid-twentieth century the BBC was closely aligned with mainstream educational thinking, and that its broadcasting structures and practices largely reproduced the stratification of social knowledge seen in Britain’s evolving secondary school system between the 1920s and the 1950s. Through the work of Rhoda Power, the article also shows how the BBC created unique spaces for women to participate in and lead educational thinking, at a time when their influence within elite education in universities was diminishing.

Keywords

• BBC
• education
• schooling
• Rhoda Power
• pedagogy
• women