Pupil behaviour in UK schools continues to be an obsession in policy and education debate. Conservative governments, especially since 2010, have pursued an illiberal agenda which, this paper argues, is entirely associated with their project to create an education system based on performativity and competition as part of a neo-liberal economic and…

Initially launched in 2013, researchED claims to be a 'grassroots' organisation which disseminates the best educational research to classroom practitioners. During the last 10 years, it has played a pivotal role in cementing the 'new science' of educational research as the primary route to educational effectiveness. ResearchED events are popular…

An education reform claimocracy is rule by assertion, and in this article we examine the claims made for the academisation and MATification of the provision of and access to school places in England. We examine the claimocracy at work in regard to the Conservative government white paper, "Opportunity for All. Strong Schools with Great…

This article is about the process and outcome of carrying out the author's Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). The title of her EPQ was: 'Is It Politically Possible to Keep Global Temperature Rise "Well below 2 °C"?'--using the wording of the Paris Agreement to focus on the temperature threshold that scientists believe is safe for our…

This article outlines Labour ideals and values, and demonstrates the tensions between egalitarian and meritocratic imperatives for the reform agendas Labour governments pursued in office and the educational settlements reached. It challenges 'common sense' interpretations of elites and elite education and fixed 'ability' thinking, and promotes the…

In 2008 Michael Fielding published an article 'Personalisation, Education and the Market' where he identified that New Labour (1997-2010) had adopted a neoliberal form of personalised education that generated both concerns and a new agenda for revitalising the public realm through personhood. In this article I present an appreciative…

A common idea of research lies in association with virtues of open-mindedness, pursuit of truth and the liberation of humanity from burdens of prejudice. Aside from this "blue skies" picture of scientific research we have "practitioner research" designed by teachers to improve the quality of the education they provide in…

This is an edited transcript of the Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture, given by Ken Jones, at the request of the Socialist Education Association, in November 2020. The lecture situates Caroline's work in the context of the 'Long Revolution' of twentieth century Britain. The lecture discusses the meaning of that revolution for education; it charts the…

Climate change is an incredibly important issue that has horrific long-term impacts if necessary lifestyle and policy changes are not made now. Despite the presence of significant scientific evidence of climate change for years, many politicians are still unable to admit that climate change is real, let alone create policies to better combat this…

In the 1830s, England began to see the introduction of schools targeted at the whole population, and soon the first inspectors were appointed. Although they came from privileged backgrounds themselves, the earliest members of the Inspectorate were remarkably quick to recognise and address the challenges faced by teachers in elementary schools.…

In the light of the government's recent White Paper, we outline the history of the academisation programme, positioning it as part of the neo-liberal privatisation drive which has been sustained since the 1988 Education Reform Act under governments of all stripes. We contest central claims made for the supposed benefits of academisation, and call…

The lesson to be learnt from a quarter of a century of resisting standardised testing is that educational and pedagogical issues must drive campaigning. Teachers must work together to re-establish confidence in their own ability to control the curriculum and what is offered to our children. This can only be a collective enterprise and teachers…

Conversations about 'fixed' or innate ability in relation to schools and education have generally considered - though not exclusively so - the psychological and sociological basis of ability, the practicalities and policy formulations. In this article, the author considers the emergent politics of ability and the culture war on social media which…

In this article, the author focuses on the statist imaginary associated with the defence of public education. Drawing on work on the idea of the public sphere, anarchist theory and the politics of movement, she argues that in a world characterised by unprecedented and growing levels of mass migration and displacement, a new, non-statist imaginary…

The proposed creation of a National Education Service (NES) for England offers us the possibility of a decisive break from the market paradigm, where education is seen as a commodity in mainly economic terms and where individual and institutional competition are regarded as the drivers of improvement. Is the advocacy of an NES by the Labour Party…