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. This paper presents original data exploring how a small selection (n = 10) of Heads of English in some English secondary schools are accommodating policy changes. Ball’s analytic framework developed to explore neoliberal policy enactment in education 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 research shows how these Heads of Department are generally positive and confident in their approach to teaching English.

KEYWORDS:

• English teaching
• education policy
• neoliberal education
• middle leadership
• Heads of Department

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.