Dave Hill

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Dave Hill Professor of Education Policy,
University of Northampton, UK Chief Editor,
Journal for Critical education Policy Studies,
www.jceps.com
Fri 2 June
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Global Policy and Ideological Context Neoliberal
Global Capitalism and Education

• Within Education the Agenda of Capita for/in
  Education comprises a
• Reduction in Expenditure on Public Education
  Services
• A Campaign of Denigration of the Public Sector
  and Pub. Sect. workers
• Capitalist Agenda for Schooling and Education-
  the production of hierarchically skilled and
  ideologically quiescent labour power
• Capitalist Agenda in Schooling and Education-
  through pre-privatisation and privatization, to
  make profits out of it
• New Public Managerialism mode of organisation and
  surveillance/ control
• Capitalist Agenda for Education Business -
  British and United States (and other leading
  local capitalist states) based corporations in
  the vanguard of privatisation and profit taking
  internationally
• Differentiated Schooling and Education cheaper,
  more tiered
• Cheaper Teachers and Workforce para-teachers,
  deregulation, decentralisation, union-busting

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• Introduction
• Global Policy and Ideological Context
• What are the main ideologies in education/?
• What are New Labours Education Policies?
• What are their historical and ideological and
  welfare policy contexts?
• What concepts of Social Justice do they embrace?
  
• How sustainable are they?

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Ideologies in Education

• Two main ideologies of education and wider policy
  in Britain 1940s-1970s liberal-progressivism
  (1960s-1970s), and social democracy (1944-1970s).
  
• The Radical Right in education and in wider
  policy Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism
  ThinkTanks, Thatcherism and Blairism. there is
  too much equality (and social justice)
• New Labours education policies six themes
  contradictory but overall- inegalitarian.
• Impacts and ideologies of New Labours education
  policies and wider policies. Who Wins, who
  loses?...which (raced and gendered class)..
  Non-sustainable competitive marketised
  individualistic concept of social justice the
  opportunity to be even more unequal
• Education Egalitarian principles for schooling
  and education in Britain- a Left education
  manifesto. Sustainable economic and social
  justice?
• Social Democracy, Reforms and Marxism, the
  Neoliberal Onslaught, and Resistance some
  questions re sustainability of social justice

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• Ideologies Social Democracy and Socialismand
  now New Labour (and other Social Dem. Govts. In
  W. Europe)
• Labour governments (1945-51, 1964-70 and 1974-76)
  - broadly social democratic strong socialist
  current. (2006only 30 socialist MPs in
  Parliament, 1 RESPECT MP, the rest still in the
  Labour Party) emphasis on social class
  meritocratic concept of social justice
• Labour was actually in power 1974 - 1979, but -
  1976-79 changed policies more emphasis on
  economic aims, less on social. Cuts. New Labour
  in govt. 1997- present no socialism, a little
  social democracy, some neoconservatism, huge
  emphasis on neoliberalism.. Social justice
  subordinated to development of human capital
• The Undemocratisation of New Labour changes in
  the party organisation, membership, ideology
  From a capitalist workers party, to a capitalist
  party? Unions leaving/ expelled/ withdrawing
  funding and putting it into campaigns instead

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• Social Democracy
• full employment for workers
• the welfare state, relatively high levels of
  public expenditure,
• relatively high levels of taxation, especially on
  the rich, with redistributive taxation seen as a
  positive social good to create a fairer society
• a mixed pseudo-Keynesian economy (i.e. an
  economic mix of public sector and private sector
  control and provision, together with government
  reflation of the economy during recessions)
• trade union and workers rights and recognition
  of the positive role of trade unions in defending
  and negotiating the rights/ pay/ conditions of
  workers trade union block vote at the Labour
  Party Conference

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Social Democracy and education

• comprehensive schooling
• expansion of educational opportunities and
  provision
• local community involvement
• local community control
• a commitment to policies of equal opportunities,
  especially regarding social class
• Affirmative action/ positive discrimination
• curriculum and education system for meritocracy
  and a higher degree of social justice
• But how much did it do this higher public
  expenditure, yes, trade union power yes, high
  taxation on companies and the richbut within a
  strongly differentiated class system schooling
  and education still reproductive of the economic
  and social relations of production how
  sustainable is social democracy a class balance
  under capitalism?

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Liberal-Progressivism / Child-Centredness/
Student -centredeness and education the
hippy let it all hang out, individualistic
hedonistic period in an era of full employment

• child-centredness,
• 'readiness' (e.g. reading readiness)
• interdisciplinary topic work
• 'integrated day' (not subject-based)
• curriculum emphasis on 'relevance'
• the teacher as a guide to educational experiences
  rather than a distributor of knowledge
• the non-authoritarian teacher as friend and guide

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• 'discovery learning'
• little competitive testing
• individual work and on group co-operation and
  group work, rather than on competitiveness
• aim flourishing of the individual.
• But. Did it ghettoise children within their own
  (raced and gendered) social class groups
  without expanding horizons without being
  bicultural (domestic/ elite cultures) did it
  benefit middle strata and elite strata most? Was
  this social justice? How sustainable was it?

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• Neoliberal Policies
• Low public expenditure
• marketisation/ quasi-markets
• selective education
• relegation of most developing states and their
  populations to subordinate global labour market
  positions, specializing in lower skilled services
• new public managerialism surveillance,
  targets, intensification of work
• privatisation
• fiscal rectitude
• decentralisation
• Deregulation
• Union Busting national pay and conditions
  agreements busted unions weakened
• result increasingly differentiated provision of
  services. (health, pensions, education).. Class
  polarisation increased inequalities between
  social classes, tiered schools, young people.

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The Radical Right Neo-Liberalism and Education

• individualism, individual test performance as
  part the neo-liberal personal ethics, where the
  general neoliberal vision is that every human
  being is an entrepreneur managing their own life
  and that this individual maximisation is more
  important than other (e.g collective
  responsibility/ social justice) ethics
• privatisation/ private enterprise support for
  private schooling and private enterprise
  /business involvement in schools, privatising
  national education services such as Ofsted and
  the Teacher Pensions Agency pre-privatisation

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• market competition/consumer choice, e.g.
  different types of schools local (school-based)
  budgetary control), publication of the league
  tables of schools test results, as quality
  control and esteem marker for market position)
  
• Business methods of management (new public
  managerialism) inc. surveillance of/ strict
  control over and measurement of standards and
  performance in public services, for example,
  rigorous inspections of schools, and teacher
  education providers, and national assessments
  of pupils at ages 7, 11, 14, 16,
• Cuts in funding on education
• anti-producer power/ distrust of the vested
  interests and inefficiency' of professionals and
  workers in the public sector
• Focus on producing tiered, compliant labour
  power cost reduction vocational technicist
  uncritical basics education for the non-elite.
• Schooling as an Ideological State Apparatus with
  Repressive moments

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• Neoconservative Policies
• circumscription, the attempt to straightjacket
  students, teachers and professors practices-
  their curricula, their pedagogy- the repressive
  use of the local state apparatus.
• enforcement by the central state apparatuses.
  These include those of the security state. This
  includes blacklists, non-promotion of
  oppositional teachers and professors, public
  vilification and ridicule
• culture wars , the use of the ideological state
  apparatuses (some churches, many schools, nearly
  all mass media) to legitimate neoliberal and
  neoconservative ideology, common-sense,
  practices and beliefs.
• the appearance but lack of of ideological
  choice the denial of class, the claims of
  meritocracy, the impeding of class consciousness

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• Neoconservative education principles
• tradition (e.g. the monarchy, traditional family
  (i.e. pro-marriage, anti homosexuality), anti-gay
  Clause 28 (of the 1988 Local Government Act).
• 'back to basics' e.g. in sexual and social
  morality, in focusing on the 3 Rs', and in
  pupil-teacher relationships return to
  traditional teacher-centred, chalk and talk
  pedagogy/ teaching methods
• nation and nationalism (cf. pro-Europe or
  internationalist), focus on Britishness within
  the National Curriculum, .. a white, middle
  class, male curriculum monoculturalism and
  assimilationism regarding 'race' opposition to
  both multi-culturalism and to anti-racism, both
  being hostilely labelled as politically
  correct.
• authority, order and social control, for example
  within classrooms and schools, with teachers
  being exhorted to dress smartly
• elitism and hierarchicalism resources targeted
  at the elite and the high achievers for example
  with the 1981 Assisted Places Scheme, the very
  first Conservative legislation of their 1979-1987
  period

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• The Unity and Disunity of the Radical Right in
  Education
• Thatcherism populist amalgam of neo-liberal and
  neo-conservative ideology developed a
  (neo-conservative)strong state' defending the
  (neo-liberal) free market
• The Radical Right Four principles in common
  between the Neolibs and the Neocons
• opposition to and derision, distrust and
  disrespect for
• public services
• socialist/Marxist egalitarianism
• liberal-progressivism/ child-centred/
  student-centred pedagogy and education
• the theory purporting to underlie what the
  Radical Right sees as essentially practical
  activities, such as teaching and initial teacher
  education.
• Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism Global
  Similarities, National Variations

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New Labour Achievements
Universal nursery education for all 4 year olds
a significant expansion for 3 year-olds. In total
there are 120,000 more free nursery places than
in 1997' Sure Start (a programme aimed at
helping pre-school children in poorer areas) to
include 500 programmes, to support 400,000
under-4s, one-third of under-4s living in
poverty, by 2004' Standards Overall best ever
results at ages 11, 14, 16 and 18. Standards
in Poor Areas Expansion of Further and Higher
Education Over a quarter of young people start
Apprenticeships and we now have the highest
number ever going to university. The proportion
of 18 to 30-year-olds going into higher education
has risen from an elite few of around six per
cent in the 1960s to 44 per cent in 2004
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Staffing and Spending More teachers and Support
Staff More teachers in schools 28,000 more
than in 1997 and 105,000 new support staff. Every
secondary school will be rebuilt or refurbished
over the next ten to 15 years School support
staff numbers have doubled since 1997, to
269,000 Spending on Schools Substantial and
sustained investment Spending on education in
England real increase in funding of 29 per
pupil, and significant investment in the
workforce, in books and technology and in the
fabric of the school estate. Teachers pay has
increased 20 in real terms and pay and
promotion are increasingly linked to results and
pupil progress Education Maintenance
Allowances for 16-18 year olds staying on at
school
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Six Themes in New Labours Education Policy Theme
1 a social democratic theme Inclusion
Targeted Expenditure, Redistribution and
Spending Theme 2 a neo-conservative theme
Back to Basics Curriculum, Pedagogy and
Traditionalism. Theme 3 a neo-liberal theme
Managerialism Target-Setting, Surveillance and
Punishment Theme 4 another neo-liberal theme
Killing off the Comprehensives Market
Competition, New Schools and Diversity and
Selection Theme 5 yet another neo-liberal
theme New Partnerships Pre-Privatisation,
Corporation Control and Schools for Sale Theme
Six Education for Capital the Social Production
of Labour Power Schools and Media as ideological
and Repressive State Apparatuses.. keepem in
line, keepem skilled, keepem in their place
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Six Themes in New Labours Education Policy

• Theme 1 a social democratic
  theme Inclusion Targeted Expenditure,
• Redistribution and Spending
• EAZs and Excellence in Cities
• Ending per capita funding
• Increased Funding
• Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs)
• Expansion of higher education.
• Ending of Student Grants for higher education/
  replacement by student loans
• Public Expenditure
• From 1999-00 to 2005-06 public spending will have
  risen by four-and-a-half percentage points of
  GDP, from 37.4 to 41.9

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Theme 2 a neo-conservative theme Back to
Basics Curriculum, Pedagogy and
Traditionalism. Curriculum Traditionalism
'back to basics' in the curriculum with the
Literacy Hour and Numeracy Hour in Primary
schools). Pedagogy The assault on mixed
ability teaching, return to teacher-centred
pedagogy. No critical pedagogy!!!! Teacher
Training Teacher training curriculum
prescriptive, heavily geared to skills training,
and leaves very little time for the development
of critical thought, or consideration of the
social and political contexts of education/
schooling, or if issues such as social class,
race gender, special needs, sexuality ..a
curriculum for conformity.
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Theme 3 a neo-liberal theme Managerialism
Target-Setting, Surveillance and Punishment
Surveillance/ Monitoring 'getting tough', partly
through naming and shaming' 'failing' schools
and LEAs, closing some schools down, and various
measures to enable private for profit
corporations to take over failing LEA services
and opening up schools to takeover by
not-for-profit corporations. T Teachers are
tested for example when they apply for
Performance Related Pay' after 5 years teaching.
Stratifying the teaching workforce,
stratification of the workforce in schools, for
example by Performance Related Pay (PRP) and the
introduction of new types and grades of
teacher, on different rates of pay.. expansion
in the number of teaching assistants Pay and
Conditions A key element of Capitals plans for
education is to cut its labour costs For this, a
deregulated labour market flexploitation,
casualisation
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Theme 4 another neo-liberal theme Killing off
the Comprehensives Market Competition, New
Schools and Diversity and Selection Policies on
altering the structures of schooling- patterns of
ownership, control, instituting different types
of school. New Types of School
Academies publicly funded independent schools
with voluntary or private sector sponsors and
control. at least 200 academies established by
2010 Academiesoutside LEA control. can set pay
and conditions, and change/ vary the
curriculum. Specialist Schools allowed to
select up to 10 of their pupils by aptitude'.
Those with more than 500 pupils have to raise
50,000 in sponsorship as part of their bids,
over 90 of all secondary schools in England
will become Specialist Schools' by 2006.
Independent Trust Schools many, or most, or
all LEA controlled primary and secondary schools
becoming, in effect, independent state schools,
outside of LEA/ local democratically accountable
control- with the power to vary the national
curriculum- and vary (alter) the pay and
conditions of staff such as teachers, and vary
the skill mix (e.g. the ratio of teachers to
teaching assistants).
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Theme 5 yet another neo-liberal theme New
Partnerships Pre-Privatisation, Corporation
Control and Schools for Sale Business
Involvement in Schools Academies For 2 you
get a schooland 25 million of govt.
money Independent Trust Schools to the cynical,
the trusts look like city academies without the
25m price tag. The key to understanding the
Trust Schools lies in the White Paper description
of them as "independent state schools".
Privatisation Pre-Privatisation and Business
Involvement the General Agreement for Trade in
Services (GATS), and opening up to free trade in
services by national and by multinational and
foreign Capital (Glenn Rikowski). By currently
encouraging private companies to bid for/ own/
run/ manage state schools, New Labour is actively
encouraging future privatisation and private
control of state schools.
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Theme Six Education for Capital the Social
Production of Labour Power
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• Impacts and Ideologies of New Labours Education
  Policies
• Capital, Corporations and Education
• Selection, Inequality, and (Raced) Class
• The triumph of Neoliberalism Greater equality of
  opportunity (via targeted spending) is suffocated
  by neo-liberal and neo-conservative policies. The
  quiescent, non-critical neo-conservative subject
  curriculum and hidden/ informal curriculum in
  schools serves to dampen- but not to suppress-
  resistance to an increasingly capitalised,
  commodified and unequal society.
• RESULT This process of increasing educational
  inequality is reflected in and amplified by wider
  social, housing, and fiscal and economic
  policies, which have resulted in increasing
  inequalities in the wider society
• This is New Labours
• class war from above. .

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An Alternative, Alternative Education Policy an
Egalitarian Education Policy Sustainable
Economic and Social Justice

• vastly increased equality (of outcome)
• comprehensive / common provision (i.e. no
  private or selective provision of schooling)
• democratic community control over education,
  not private or religious or non-elected control
• use of the local and national state to achieve
  a socially just (defined as egalitarian),
  anti-discriminatory society, e.g. affirmative
  action, rather than simply an inegalitarian
  meritocratic focus on equal opportunities to get
  to very unequal outcomes.

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An Alternative Society an Egalitarian Society

• The Value of Reforms
• The Limitations of Reforms in crises of capital
  accumulation
• Social Democracy and Marxism
• Problems of Social Democracy an alibi for
  Capitalism
• The Ravages and Dangers of Neoliberalism
• Contemporary Resistance and Models

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GOOGLE ltdave hill Marxistgt ltdave hill education
policygt and see the Journal for Critical
Education Policy Studies www.jceps.com and the
Institute for Education Policy Studies
www.ieps.org.uk