Neoconservative education policy and the case of the English Baccalaureate

Eszter Neumann,Sharon Gewirtz,Meg Maguire,Emma Towers

doi:10.1080/00220272.2019.1708466

Eszter Neumann, Sharon Gewirtz + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2019.1708466

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Conservativism has gained significant influence on education-policy making and debates about education in many Anglophone countries. While conservative educational governments have advanced some neoliberal governance trends, they have also introduced characteristic neoconservative education elements, notably in the area of curricular content. This article focuses on the impact of conservative ideology on curriculum and assessment policies in English secondary education and specifically explores schools’ first reactions to the introduction of a policy initiative that is emblematic of neoconservatism, the English Baccalaureate. The empirical discussion relies on a mixed methods study on the reception of the latest assessment and curriculum policies in English secondary schools. The findings suggest that the current reforms are transforming school subject hierarchies, resource allocation across subjects, and what counts as knowledge in English secondary schools, and introducing a new culture of subject—and by implication, teacher and student—‘worth’.

Highlights

We start by discussing the education policies initiated by Conservative governments since 2010 with a particular focus on their ideological foundations and the introduction of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), a policy initiative for secondary education that is emblematic of contemporary neoconservative curriculum reform
Drawing on the results of a study commissioned by the National Union of Teachers (Neumann, Towers, Gewirtz, & Maguire, 2016) we go on to critically analyse the first effects of the EBacc
The teachers entrusted with the enactment of the reforms voiced sophisticated and harsh criticism of the Ebacc and its underlying assumptions borrowed from Hirsch and the Core Knowledge Movement

Summary

Introduction

This paper focuses on the most recent incarnation of neoconservative education policy in England. We start by discussing the education policies initiated by Conservative governments since 2010 with a particular focus on their ideological foundations and the introduction of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), a policy initiative for secondary education that is emblematic of contemporary neoconservative curriculum reform. Eighty-two percent of teachers of creative subjects, 84% of teachers of vocational subjects and 75% of Technology teachers reported a decrease in examination entry rates in their subjects in their schools; whilst 69% of Geography and History teachers and 59% of Modern Foreign Language teachers reported that exam entry rates had increased in their subjects Taken together, these findings suggest that a tangible effect of the new EBacc and Progress 8 measures has been a significant change in secondary subject offerings caused by a general move towards a narrowing of the curriculum and the marginalization of creative and vocational subjects. Combined science or Triple science (students who choose Triple Science must choose an EBacc humanities subject and a foreign language)

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