Educational bankruptcy

Several decades ago Hunter explained in Rethinking the School that

even the model educational establishment are nothing more than a
disappointment. He states that the school system has the appearance of
a humble church built out of stones intended for a great cathedral. It is
mocked by the scale of its unrealized potential (Hunter 1994, p.1). Even
today, by viewing our educational establishments as failed attempts of
what they could be, as the means by which we achieve complete human
development, they are doomed to always fail to reach expectations. The
result of this observation is a continuous sense of disappointment; if only
its builders had not lost faith and gone into moral and political bankruptcy
(Hunter, p.1).
A foreword, contained within the Department of Educations most recent
White Paper (2016), by former Secretary of State for Education, Nicky
Morgan, once again strengthened the proliferating reservations and
anxieties of educational practitioners and teachers, whilst also
strengthening the resolve of a whole generation of teachers. Were not
going to give in without a fight! Education has the power to transform
lives, but is it always for the better (DfE 2016, p.3)? This white paper,
which seeks to legitimize the validity of underachieved educational
standards, seeks to legitimize political drivers by using a whole range of
methods such as international comparative data (PISA), a resurgence of
inspections and their findings (OfSted) and local testing data and league
tables. As the paper states recent international assessments, comparing
the performance of our young people in 2011/2012 with their international
peers, have shown that our education standards have remained static, at
best, whilst other countries have moved ahead (DfE 2016, p.3). Once
again our education system has failed to achieve its cathedral-like
potential but, according to the minister, this is going to change.

Time has passed since 2010 and the Department of Educations hope that
our schools should be engines of social mobility, helping children to
overcome the accidents of birth and background to achieve much more
than they may ever have imagined (DfE, p.6) do not seemed to have
realized. How so? The governments academies agenda and a relentless
drive to increase standards has, inevitably, pushed a great number of
institutions into the category of requiring improvement or special
measures. Sadly, children still remain victims of forces beyond their
control (DfE 2010 p. 6); the place a child is born still has a dramatic
impact on the level and quality of education they receive. Those schools
which struggle to reach the level of academic achievement, often affected
by a variety of factors such as teacher retention, are forced to become an
academy.

The problem, I believe, is that far too often the focus is too intently on
what the education system should be like or what it should do rather than
focusing on the current situation and judging each individual
establishment on its own merits. In my investigation of the most recent
forwards, published in government white papers (DfE, 2010; DfE 2016),
and by comparing them against each other, I have come to believe that
there has been a huge shift in the politically and ideologically-driven
drivers and levers being employed, which have led to new dominant
discourses and rhetoric beings expounded surrounding education. We can
no longer say that were all working together on this one as far too often it
if the standards and expectations of those working on the front line that
are blamed despite increasingly impossible circumstances. And again we
say plus a change, plus cest la mme because perhaps education is
bankrupt.

Department for Education (2010) The Importance of Teaching: The Schools

White Paper 2010. Cm.7980. London: Stationery Office.

Department for Education (2016) Educational excellence everywhere.

Cm.9230. London: Stationery Office.
Hunter, I. (1994) Rethinking the school: subjectivity, bureaucracy,
criticism. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd.

Biography

Jack Bryne Stothard is a primary school teacher and deputy head teacher
based in Kingston upon Hull and Derbyshire. His interests include how
spaces dominate our lives and experience and how they can be utilized to
make dynamic curricula.

Jack has a bachelors and masters degree in music and has worked with a
range of different organizations and community groups. He is currently
completing a doctorate of education at the University of Sheffield. His
research focuses on experiences of and in the classroom and how
genealogical narratives can problematize spaces to open new discourses.