Revolution from Above in English Schools: Neoliberalism, the Democratic Commons and Education

Abstract

Since the formation of cultural sociology in the 1960s there has been a long history and interest in different styles of schooling as well as more democratic forms of pedagogy. Raymond Williams's (1962) idea of the long revolution urged the development of more dialogic forms of learning, seeking to develop common systems of education that broke with the patterns of a class society. Similarly Richard Hoggart (1958) had just a few years earlier argued for more critical forms of education, should the working-classes become 'corrupted' by mass culture. Both Hoggart and Williams promoted the idea of a common education system that offered children both a creative and civically oriented life as democratic citizens. If such an education system were to emerge, they claimed it would need the backing of the labour movement who seemingly had most to gain from an education system that did not merely train workers to labour, but sought to enable them to live more complex, democratic and educated lives. This approach is in response to the problem that the substantial gains of state education and the welfare state did not go far enough in breaking with the dominant logic of capitalism. When it came to understanding the resources spent on education, the dominant patterns of pedagogy and the choice of curriculum it was the needs of capital and the labour market that was given priority. For both Hoggart and Williams the labour movement in this respect needed to develop an educational agenda that insisted that working people were more than just labouring bodies, but could engage themselves in creative pursuits, democratic politics and develop educated interests.However rather than the English education system being remade in more democratic terms what has become apparent in more recent times is that capitalism, in association with political elites, think tanks, charities and other moral entrepreneurs, is in the process of radically transforming the existing structure of schooling [1]. The recent break-up of the comprehensive school and its replacement over a relatively

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