There is a growing consensus that existing arrangements for policy making in education are far from optimal. This paper is about policy making and the roles of--and relationships between--elected officials, civil servants and academics in the making of policy. It aims to open up a conversation about new ways of making education policy that make…

The whole class ensemble tuition (WCET) programme in English schools is a somewhat singular and relatively recent arrival onto the teaching and learning scene. It arose from a remark made by an English politician and has grown from there into becoming a regular feature in the music education landscape in primary schools. It has elements which will…

This paper explores contradictory constructions of teacher work across policy discourse and professional practice. It draws from a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of 363 political speeches published on England's Department for Education website between 2010 and 2018, and qualitative interviews with two executive leaders working in…

After reflecting on the difference between his study of source extracts at university and how he was using source extracts in the classroom, Jonathan Sellin went in search of a new way to help his pupils to situate sources in context. Finding inspiration in the work of intellectual historian Quentin Skinner, Sellin decided to show his Year 9…

In this article, two government education policies for primary schools in England are scrutinised, the Phonics Screening Check and Baseline Assessment, both claimed by ministers to be 'evidence based'. What has become a high-stakes test rather than a diagnostic assessment, the Phonics Screening Check, introduced in 2012, now dominates early years…

Latest research from the authors and their team at the University of Oxford has used administrative data, a survey of local authorities, and a series of case studies to paint a picture of what has happened to children's centres across England. The six case studies include Londonborough, Portcity, Shipcity, Rivershire, Midshire, and Northport.…

The Queen Elizabeth II recently made her fifth public speech on COVID-19 since taking office. Through the use of systemic functional linguistics to analyze her speech text, this article mainly analyzes the text from the perspective of the concept of function and finds this speech text involves only four processes: material process, metal process,…

The myriad challenges facing school principals in the United States have been well documented, including limited opportunities for distributed leadership, inadequate training, and a lackluster pipeline for new leaders. Recently, the Fordham Institute teamed up with the London-based Education Foundation to seek a better understanding of England's…

Schools in England are now required by law to 'actively promote British values' (DfE, 2014). This paper seeks to set this requirement within the context of a somewhat longer history of debates about values in Britain. It discusses the views of certain neoconservatives who claim that multiculturalism has eroded or even abolished British values. It…

This paper is an exploration of the debates surrounding the publication of a new National Curriculum for history in England. The draft curriculum was published in February 2013 and was withdrawn just 6 months later in the face of considerable opposition. This paper offers a tentative explanation for this example of a rare phenomenon: effective…

This article examines the ways in which a high-quality system of undergraduate education is represented in recent policy documents from a range of actors interested in higher education. Drawing on Basil Bernstein's ideas, the authors conceptualise the policy documents as reflecting a struggle over competing views of quality that are expressed…

The history of the forced conversion to sponsored academy status of Castle Primary School in south Somerset is a tale of broken promises, lies, and a blatant breach of statutory procedures. Yet the Department for Education, the local Member of Parliament (and schools minister) and the local authority stood by--sometimes participated--while a small…

Since the mid-1980s, a number of East Asian societies have consistently performed well in international tests, and their education systems have emerged as models of "best practice", including Hong Kong, which has been extensively referenced by politicians and their advisers in England. In parallel, local dissatisfaction with the…

This article traces continuity and change in the governance of British education through the comparison of two ministers, Anthony Crosland and Michael Gove. Taking Maurice Kogan's seminal "The Politics of Education" as the point of departure, the article highlights the role of political ideology in large-scale educational change, taking…

Set against a period of rapid change, education has grown in political importance and policy development has moved from the local authority to central government with a key role being played by the Secretary of State. Based on a series of semi-structured interviews, with 10 politicians who have served as Secretary of State for Education, this…