Acknowledgements -- Editor’s Introduction -- Part One: The General, Theoretical Challenges -- Chapter One: Volker Kraft, ‘Constants of Education’ -- Chapter Two: Robin Barrow, ‘Compulsory Common Schooling and Individual Difference’ -- Chapter Three: Geoffrey Hinchliffe, ‘Education, Liberty and Authority: justifying compulsory education’ -- Chapter Four: Kevin Williams, ‘Compulsion and Education as a Conversation: Are they compatible?’ -- Chapter Five: Naoko Saito, ‘Compulsion without Coercion: liberal education through uncommon schooling’ -- Chapter Six: Anders Schinkel, ‘On the justification of compulsory schooling’ -- Part Two: The Many Faces of Challenges Confronting the Compulsory -- Chapter Seven: David Blacker, ‘Compulsory Education Cycles Down’ -- Chapter Eight: Roni Aviram, ‘Is there hope for modern education systems in postmodern democracies?’ -- Chapter Nine: Kevin Williams, ‘Conscripts or volunteers?  The status of learners in faith schools’ -- Chapter Ten: Helen Lees, ‘Is the idea of compulsory schooling ridiculous?’ -- Chapter Eleven: Andrew Davis, ‘Homework: chronicles of wasted time?’ -- Chapter Twelve: Amrita Zahir, ‘Understanding Transformation’ -- Coda: Paul Gibbs, ‘Happiness and Education: Recognizing a fundamental attunement’.