Enabling educators to meet new and challenging times requires fundamental shifts to ways of imagining and enacting their practice. A central yet often understated aspect of this educational change are the various ways in which educators receive training and development. From initial teacher training through to continuing professional development,…

In this article, we provide a critical explanation and critique of neoliberalism. We attempt an innovative focus ranging from the wider contemporary political and ideological shifts, to the way in which neoliberal policy specifically influences higher education and the consequences thereof. We follow a narrative logic in three parts where we first…

This paper utilises the analytical concepts developed in the work of Basil Bernstein to reflect on the ways in which discourses such as social justice are especially vulnerable in teacher education in England. In particular, under new-managerial regimes the forms of knowledge which are emphasised and valued focus on the instrumental and…

In England, social choice in education faces trade-offs between equity and efficiency. The scope of these trade-offs ranges from the introduction of choice to correcting "market failures" to reduce inequalities and restrict social injustices. The article analyses the English school education system and its relationship with social…

In this article, the author explores the way that neo-liberalism is becoming more entrenched in the fabric of the education system in England. The article begins by setting out a very brief historical trajectory of neo-liberalism to provide a working definition of a complex and disarticulated socio-political and economic system. In part two, this…

The role of local government in addressing issues of social equity is undergoing significant reconstruction in current educational policy reforms in England. The current conceptualisation of social provision places individual rights at the centre of policy, and social responsibility is represented as the work of individuals. Drawing upon a…

The study scrutinizes the rationale behind higher education policy change in England and Japan, giving attention to stakeholders' perspective and legitimacy, policy network, and policy sphere. It argues that change in higher education policy in England and Japan towards being more market-oriented in the 1980s (England) and the 1990s (Japan) can…

Overseas trained teachers (OTTs) have become an important part of the make-up of England's primary and secondary education system. Through inadequate, and in some cases a lack of, initial induction and support for professional development, many are at risk of performing sub-optimally and some have become an endangered species. Failure to integrate…

This article discusses whether the occupational culture of teachers has changed as a consequence of increased managerialism, using as an exemplar some of the routine planning, assessment and reporting procedures in common use in schools in England. The article examines this claim in the light of developments after the 1988 Education Reform Act,…

The first part of this article contextualises "education reform"--the restructuring of education and teacher education--within the global and national requirements and demands of Capital in the current epoch of global neoliberalism and neoconservatism. The second part analyses developments in teacher education in England and Wales under…

This article considers the degree to which recent changes in school leadership discourse, to incorporate diversity, reflect a changing professional culture among school leadership trainers and researchers in England. It examines the extent to which equalities legislation has had an impact on school leadership agendas and considers what can be…

Education in both England and the United States has undergone a profound change over the last two decades as part of neo-liberal and neoconservative political reforms. The reforms have been characterized by efforts to standardize the curriculum, to implement standardized tests in order to hold students, teachers, and schools accountable, to…

This article traces the demise of creativity in the national curriculum in England and Wales. It is argued that the creative dimension in the national curriculum has been purged by various government directives since the Ruskin speech in 1976, all aiming to introduce provisions of standardisation, centralisation, and vocationalisation of…

This article focuses on global trends in education policy during the current epoch of imperializing, militaristic, neo-liberal global capital. It is based on an analysis that global capital, in the form of dominant US multinational capital, together with its client governments, uses the repressive and ideological apparatuses of the state to…