A national system of education cannot function without policy. But
the path to practice is seldom smooth, especially when ideology
overrules evidence or when ministers seek to micromanage what is
best left to teachers. And once the media join the fray the mixture
becomes downright combustible. Drawing on his long experience as
teacher, researcher, government adviser, campaigner and
international consultant, and on over 600 published sources, Robin
Alexander expertly illustrates and illuminates these processes.
This selection from his recent writing, some hitherto unpublished,
opens windows onto cases and issues that concern every teacher.
Part 1 tackles system-level reform. It revisits the Cambridge
Primary Review, an evidence-rich enquiry into the condition and
future of primary education in England, which challenged the UK
government's policies on curriculum, testing, standards and more
besides. Here the reform narratives and strategies of successive
governments are confronted and dissected. Part 2 follows the
development of England's current National Curriculum, exposing its
narrow vision and questionable use of evidence and offering a more
generous aims-driven alternative. This section also investigates
the expertise and leadership needed if children are to experience a
curriculum of the highest quality in all its aspects. Part 3
reaches the heart of the matter: securing the place in effective
pedagogy of well-founded classroom talk, a mission repeatedly
frustrated by political intervention. The centrepiece is dialogic
teaching, a proven tool for advancing students' speaking, thinking,
learning and arguing, and an essential response to the corrosion of
democracy and the nihilism of 'post-truth'. Part 4 goes global. It
investigates governments' PISA-fuelled flirtations with what they
think can be adapted or copied from education elsewhere, examines
the benefits and pitfalls of international comparison, and ends
with the ultimate policy initiative: the United Nations mission to
ensure 'inclusive and equitable quality education' for all the
world's children. Education in Spite of Policy is for all those
teachers, students, school leaders and researchers who value the
conversation of policy, evidence and practice, and who wish to
explore the parts of education that policy cannot reach.
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