Meritocracy: origins of the term and developments in the UK education system¹

Abstract

This article examines the emergence and use of the meritocracy concept and its developments in the English education system. It is a bibliographical research that aims to raise the discussions on the origins of the term “merit” in the work of British sociologist Michael Young The Rise of the Meritocracy (1958) and English education meritocracy-based reform in the second half of the twentieth century. We find in John Locke the source for understanding the reasons why the Modern Period values merit over heredity, and in the UK reform of Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990) we find the economist Milton Friedman as the main organic intellectual to justify the adoption of merit as a criterion in the current education system.

Keywords meritocracy; teachers’ work; accountability; educational reforms