The purpose of this article is to consider the evidence base for some of the proposals in the Education White Paper, Higher Standards: better schools for all. In particular, the article challenges the assertion by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills that the White Paper is based on knowledge of "what works." Using the issue of "parent…

In advocating the importance of reclaiming teachers' voices Sheila Dainton argues, not only that the DfES myth of 1970s "uninformed professionalism" is historically inaccurate and embarrassingly oxymoronic, she also observes that "delivering" someone else's thoughts, ideas, strategies and lesson plans' hardly counts as "informed professionalism."…

Once in a while, or perhaps once too often these days, a bright idea finds its way into the language of education. It is not so much a new theory of learning based on a critical analysis of the very best of what is known about an aspect of pedagogy, but a seemingly new idea, rooted in politics rather than pedagogy, and most commonly articulated in…