Language, discipline and ‘teaching like a champion’

Ian Cushing

doi:10.1002/berj.3696

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of various language policy mechanisms currently circulating in secondary schools in England, with a particular focus on those that intermingle ‘language’, ‘standard English’ and ‘discipline’. Although the connections between language, ideology and behaviour are well established within critical educational linguistics, this has not been explored in relation to current education policy in England, which is characterised by an overt focus on standardised English and behaviour ‘management’. In a grounded approach, I explore how the disciplining of language correlates with the disciplining of the body, based on ethnographic‐orientated fieldwork undertaken in a London secondary school and drawing on a broad range of policy mechanisms such as curricula, textbooks, classroom artefacts and Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion industry. I show how the current linguistic conservatism found within government policy gets reproduced in school‐level policies, pedagogies and classroom interactions, and highlight these relations within a network of policy actors and key terms associated with so‐called ‘zero‐tolerance’ and ‘no‐excuses’ schools. I show how teachers are positioned as language policy managers who work within a system of surveillance, compliance, coercion and control. As such, this article contributes to current thinking within critical language policy and the sociology of education by offering an expanded view of language ideologies in schools, whereby connections between language and discipline are explicitly illustrated and critiqued.

Highlights

This article presents an analysis of various language policy mechanisms currently circulating in secondary schools in England, with a particular focus on those that intermingle ‘language’, ‘standard English’ and ‘discipline’
This extract is illustrative of what Clark (2001) refers to as the ‘disciplining of English’: the idea that in certain spaces, such as schools, people are under policy regulations to use language in a particular way, and that this is ‘part and parcel’ of other behavioural expectations such as hygiene, tidiness, manners and clothing
Ethical approval was granted by my institution and I adhered to the practices outlined in the BERA guidelines (BERA, 2018)

Summary

Introduction

This article presents an analysis of various language policy mechanisms currently circulating in secondary schools in England, with a particular focus on those that intermingle ‘language’, ‘standard English’ and ‘discipline’. Staff should model behaviour—i.e. no chewing gum, standard English should be used at all times, dress should be appropriate, mobile phones should not be used This extract is illustrative of what Clark (2001) refers to as the ‘disciplining of English’: the idea that in certain spaces, such as schools, people are under policy regulations to use language in a particular way, and that this is ‘part and parcel’ of other behavioural expectations such as hygiene, tidiness, manners and clothing. Language —in this case, the requirement that staff use standardised English ‘all the time’—is disciplined, controlled and monitored as part of a wider policy designed to maintain standards, law and order.

Methods

Findings

Conclusion