How are Heads of English responding to policy changes in the English school system?

Abstract

Changes to education policy in England since 2010 have led teachers to reflect on what and how they teach. Heads of English departments have had particular need to review their work, but have been overlooked in the research literature. This paper presents original data exploring how a small selection (n = 10) of Heads of English in some English secondary schools are coming to accommodate policy changes. Ball's analytic framework developed to explore neoliberal policy enactment in education (Ball, 2016) is used to reveal how Heads of English might be at odds with recent policy changes, particularly regarding the range of text choices in available for examination studies, but are using their limited agency to accommodate their values in practice. This is allowing them to develop a sense of agency, albeit within a tight policy framework. This research shows how these Heads of Department are generally positive and confident in their approach to teaching English.