Neoliberalism is often addressed by commentators and critics as a set of ideas or a doctrine. This article considers neoliberalism as a set of financial practices and exchanges--as about money and profit--and goes on to suggest that as practitioners, researchers, activists we need to understand and engage with that logic and its mechanisms.…

The author argues that when the Labour Party has analysed its values emotional development has been neglected. He shows the importance of emotional literacy and uses education as a vehicle to show how Labour when in power reinforced right-wing ideology. Ways of changing education policy are indicated. It is hoped that this article will promote a…

This article analyses some of the common assertions made in the public debate about the merits and disadvantages of faith schools and tests them against actual research findings. It argues that there is a growing body of evidence showing that current policy and practice in faith schools creates social division and that faith schools need to do…

This article examines the government's view, as revealed in its June 2012 National Curriculum proposals, of the purposes and character of the primary curriculum as a whole. The proposals are found to be deficient in a number of respects: in their naive, selective and inflated use of international evidence; in their treatment of aims as no more…

The UK's Coalition Government completed its second year in office in May 2012. Many of its policies and pronouncements have been divisive and are contributing to the dismantling of the state education system as we have known it. Here, reflecting George Orwell's observation that "Every joke against the established order is a tiny…

This article is informed by a longitudinal research project undertaken with 22 teachers, four head teachers and two other related education professionals in England between May 2010 and April 2011. Drawing on 50 semi-structured interviews and some related email correspondence, the project investigates this cohort's view of teachers' professional…

The relationship between academies, and school autonomy more generally, and the wider system is a crucial issue in the battle to improve school-level education. International experience indicates that emphasising choice and competition to drive improvement is not effective and that changing structures does not yield better results for students. A…

A number of significant campaigning organisations and education trades unions--the Anti-Academies Alliance, CASE, Comprehensive Future, Forum, ISCG and the Socialist Educational Association, along with ASCL, ATL, NASUWT and NUT--staged a conference in London on 19 November 2011, with the title 'Caught in the (Education) Act: tackling Michael…

In this slightly amended version of the talk with which the author opened the "Caught in the Act" Conference on 19 November 2011, he talks about fighting the most vicious right-wing government that England has known since the end of the Second World War--and one that is determined to destroy what's left of "a national system of…

In September 2011, the author published "School Wars: the battle for Britain's education." Since then she has been travelling around the country engaging in intense debates with parents, teachers, politicians and students about the current state of state education. It has been an interesting experience for it has brought her, a…

In this article the author examines the response of the Labour leadership to the Conservative-led Government's policies for restructuring and re-agenting the school system. His focus is on the role of local authorities and local democracy. He identifies two contradictory dynamics in Labour's current thinking. One promises to enhance local…

The direction of the UK Government's policy is to remove schools from local authority control, and replace that relationship with private sponsors, undermining their ability, or indeed inclination, to deliver on the "Every Child Matters" agenda, among many others. The author argues that local authorities have much to give and where they…

This article argues that comprehensive reorganisation was not a one-off policy reform but a complex, bottom-up campaign for equity and fairness in education, with varied consequences and outcomes. Recent battles over student fees, free schools and academies show that the quest for democratic education does not lead to a permanent achievement but…

This article reflects on the inequity of secondary modern school education. In doing so it draws heavily on the experience of the author while highlighting inputs from others who failed the 11+ examination and were banished to such schools. The article argues that selection undermines the self-esteem of secondary modern school pupils and places…

This article is based on a research assignment submitted for the PGCE Course at Goldsmiths College, University of London. It looks at a Chinese community school and considers the experiences of participating families and explores how the ethos and purpose of the school relate to the practices, activities and representations that occur within its…