Beyond Neoliberalism

The political settlement of 1942-45 was designed to constitute a new world, which would replace the 1930s' mass unemployment, poverty, exclusion and hopelessness with opportunities for all. Public goods were conceived as requiring collective choice and redistribution. Schools in the most deprived areas required additional resources to support greater need. Over thirty years from 1945 to the early 1970s, prosperity grew. However, the economic crises of the early 1970s, precipitated by the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil embargo, led to rising unemployment and declining growth. The post-war order was called into question. A new regime of neo-liberal democracy was constituted based upon principles of rights, choice and competition. The consumer was empowered at the expense of the provider, equity privileged above equality; children in prosperous areas supposedly receiving the same unit of resource as those in poor areas. Our research across the UK examines the impact of this marketisation of schools: did the loss of resources damage the education of children in areas of severe disadvantage? The study examines how schools managed disadvantage, how they reflected on their practices of teaching and learning and their relations with parents and the community, and how they explored conditions which enabled them to challenge as well as reproduce local cultural traditions. Evidence shows that markets did damage achievement in many schools, but where schools were managed effectively, they could succeed against the odds.