‘As if by osmosis’: How Ofsted’s new deficit model emerged, fully formed, as cultural capital

Abstract

This paper considers recent developments in English education policy as, confirming promises made in the 2016 White Paper, Educational Excellence Everywhere, schools are now to concentrate on the realisation of a knowledge-based curriculum, one that allows all students to ‘acquire’ cultural capital. First, the remodelling of Bourdieu’s concept, designed to explain class privilege, means that the cultural capital is now a mechanism for disciplining schools and teachers who fail to deliver the required curriculum. Second, in going beyond the social inclusion advocated by previous governments, this version of cultural capital has simply recycled the 1950s notion of cultural deprivation, turning it into a ‘knowledge deficit’ to be explained with reference to the work of ED Hirsch. It remains to be seen if ‘Hirsch-knowledge’ offers anything more than passive consumption of approved content, and the paper ends with a discussion of the implications for students of the new curriculum.