Lived experiences of educators and leaders in multi-academy trusts in England: The colonisation of schools, the erosion of community engagement and the need for alternative futures

Abstract

Reconceptualising the neoliberal project in education as a process of colonisation, this paper considers the effects of what the authors argue amounts to a reconstitution of schooling in England. This argument examines how the narrative about education’s liberatory purposes in support of human flourishing that gained particular prominence in the social democratic consensus following 1945, is becoming eroded and subjugated by a neo-colonial imaginary. This disavows past connections to local communities and undermines a democratic polity. The ontological colonisation of schools and teachers by ways of working rooted in neoliberalism is examined by drawing on research on the lived experience of schools and Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) and the narratives of educators and leaders who are part of them. The narratives illustrate how such neo-colonial processes appear to appropriate and reconstitute teacher identities and shape schools’ connections with their communities. The authors analyse and interpret narratives of those in schools and the spaces to re-construct and re-imagine possible alternative futures.