Category: Education as Business

What is Neo-liberal Education? On Zuckerberg and Personalisation

April 20, 2018

In a piece for the Guardian the esteemed educationalist Sir Tim Brighouse writes: “Margaret Thatcher’s neoliberalism underpinned Baker’s 1988 reform bill, which meant a prescribed national curriculum and tougher accountability, along with diversity in school provision and autonomy.” This seems to uncover a contradiction at the heart of neoliberalism – on the one hand it … More What is Neo-liberal Education? On Zuckerberg and Personalisation

Drama in Decline

January 6, 2018

Apparently there are now 1,700 fewer drama teachers teaching in UK schools than there were in 2010. I don’t have any information as to how accurate this figure is and what the figures are in the constituent nations of the United Kingdom nor how it compares to other subjects, suffice to say it adds to … More Drama in Decline

Creativity and Collaboration

November 26, 2017

“In the popular imagination,” writes Tim Blanning in his wonderful book ‘The Romantic Revolution’, “Beethoven was the romantic hero par excellence: the lonely, afflicted, uncompromising, utterly original genius, ‘a man who treated God as an equal’…” This vision of creative minds echoes down the centuries. The tortured artists in their garret, often poor, wearing black, … More Creativity and Collaboration

Schools Are Not Businesses. A Message to Lord Nash.

March 4, 2017

Lord Nash, speaking at the Challenge Partnership national conference, titled his talk: ‘what is relevant in business to education?’ According to the TES, he said that: “…too often teachers have confused their individuality with their professionalism… Being a professional means embracing accountability, standardisation and consistency, although of course we want our teachers to be inspiring.” He went … More Schools Are Not Businesses. A Message to Lord Nash.

Get Kids Cultured

October 30, 2016

To be cultured means to nail one’s colours to the mast, and those who fear what’s arbitrary in that (and run to theory for protection) fear culture itself. Howard Jacobson The importance of tradition, the great tradition, is not that it is the only possibility but it is the best one that we have. For … More Get Kids Cultured

Remove Managerialism from the Classroom

July 10, 2016

Managerialism is the idea that quantifiable administrative approaches are the correct way to run institutions. Efficiency is all and it can sometimes be value free in that what works becomes more important than what’s right. Employees become pawns in the game of delivery and the idea of management as neutral and post-ideological holds sway. The sociologist Max … More Remove Managerialism from the Classroom

Schools, Business and ‘Providing Intelligence’

April 19, 2016

As April is the cruelest month I take a jaunt down by the river and see how things are progressing, so much building is going on, people moving in, putting plant pots on their balconies, and a bike on the nineteenth floor. Down on Greenwich Reach potential purchasers are promised property that combines: “…brilliant architecture, … More Schools, Business and ‘Providing Intelligence’