Factories for learning

Making race, class and inequality in the neoliberal academy

Christy Kulz

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781526116192
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526116208
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

Over half of England's secondary schools are now academies. While their impact on achievement has been debated, the social and cultural outcomes prompted by this neoliberal educational model has received less scrutiny. This book draws on original research based at Dreamfields Academy, a celebrated flagship secondary school in a large English city, to show how the accelerated marketization and centralization of education is reproducing raced, classed and gendered inequalities. The book also examines the complex stories underlying Dreamfields' glossy veneer of success and shows how students, teachers and parents navigate the everyday demands of Dreamfields' results-driven conveyor belt. Hopes and dreams are effectively harnessed and mobilized to enact insidious forms of social control, as education develops new sites and discourses of surveillance.

1

Building new narratives: academies, aspiration and the education market

Children who come from unstructured backgrounds, as many of our children do, and often very unhappy ones, should be given more structure in their lives. So it means that the school in many ways becomes a sort of surrogate parent to the child and the child will only succeed if the philosophy of the school is that we will in many ways substitute and take over where necessary … Therefore we want staff who commit themselves to that ethos. It’s not a nine-to-five ethos; it’s an ethos which says the only way that these children will achieve is if we go the extra mile for them. (Mr Culford, Principal of Dreamfields Academy)

This research focuses on Dreamfields Academy,¹ a celebrated secondary academy based in the borough of Urbanderry, which is located within the large urban conurbation of Goldport, England. Dreamfields’ ‘structure liberates’ ethos claims to free children from a culture of poverty through discipline and routine. Since Dreamfields opened in 2004, it has become popular with parents, politicians and the media and is continually referenced as proof of the academy programme’s effectiveness. The New Labour government opened over 200 academies between 1997 and 2010. The subsequent Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government and Conservative governments rapidly expanded and reformulated the programme so that by 1 July 2016, 5,302 schools were academies while 1,061 were on the way to becoming one (DfE, 2016). Academies were originally created by New Labour to ‘break the cycle of underachievement in areas of social and economic deprivation’ by ‘establishing a culture of ambition to replace the poverty of aspiration’ (DCFS, 2009; Adonis, 2008). Former Minister of State for Education Lord Adonis described how these schools would build aspirational cultures and act as ‘engines of social mobility and social justice’ at the ‘vanguard of meritocracy’ (Adonis, 2008). Poverty is not framed as a structural problem, but born out of ‘cultures of low aspiration’. Academies have faced opposition for their lack of democratic accountability as they can set their own labour conditions, deviate from the national curriculum and operate outside local authority control.

Urbanderry is a socially and economically mixed borough where poverty and gentrification coexist. Forty per cent of Dreamfields students receive free school meals, while over eighty per cent of students come from ethnic-minority backgrounds with black African, black Caribbean, Turkish, Bangladeshi and Indian students comprising the largest groups. These statistics, indicating Urbanderry’s poverty and ethnic diversity, are frequently juxtaposed with Dreamfields’ outstanding test scores, which have consistently exceeded the national average in terms of the number of students achieving five A-star to C grades at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level. This capacity to generate results has continued throughout the sixth form, with numerous students receiving offers from elite universities.

Dreamfields has dazzled politicians with its results and received a revolving door of visitors keen to replicate its magic recipe. I watched Dreamfields steadily garner public acclaim while I worked at the school; its accumulation of accolades against the odds was the stuff of Hollywood films. The ‘structure liberates’ ethos certainly ‘worked’ in terms of producing good grades, but what else did this ethos do, and how did it do it? There was clearly more going on than the straightforward achievement of test scores, as an economically deprived and ethnically diverse student population was allegedly culturally transformed. These ‘goings-on’ within the school connected to points beyond its iron gates, both locally and globally. My personal troubles at carrying out the ethos began to relate to wider public issues and a sociological project came into being as I sought to apply my life experiences to my intellectual work (Mills, 2000: 8–10). Surveying the largely proud student body, I could not help but feel pleased to see children who might have endured a crumbling school with substandard provision experience a sense of achievement and potentially gain access to a slice of the ‘good life’. But this uplifting tale seemed to ignore the more complicated stories underlying its glossy veneer of success. Les Back writes about trusting your interest as a researcher and pursuing niggling feelings of uncertainty while others seem certain (2007: 173). Dreamfields’ road to a brighter future is paved with the soaring rhetoric of the self-made citizen; however, this road and the demands made along it are rarely questioned, but positioned as an unexamined social and cultural good. This chapter begins by mapping the key questions framing the research and begins to explore the Dreamfields ethos, before examining how the birth and development of the academies programme embeds and extends a vision of marketised education originating in the 1980s. This connects to a wider turn towards authoritarian methods in education.

Mapping the questions

This book examines how raced, classed and gendered subjects are (re)produced in urban space through the discursive practices of the market-driven neoliberal school. It examines how hierarchies are being reformulated, as race and class are lived in and through one another in complex ways. At a Specialist Schools and Academies Trust annual conference Tony Blair pronounced that ‘education is the most precious gift a society can bestow on its children’ as he called for more academies (Blair, 2006). This research interrogates the social and cultural dimensions of this gift that seeks to graft more ‘suitable’ forms of capital onto its students. I will focus on the conditions underlying this gift’s exchange with children, parents and teachers, remaining conscious of how value is generated from the power, perspective and relationships that create the initial conditions of possibility for exchange (Skeggs, 2004).

Dreamfields’ ‘structure liberates’ ethos does not govern from a standpoint of neutrality, but through the daily imposition of norms. Principal Culford’s interview extract at the start of this chapter signals how his interpretations of Urbanderry and its residents are presented as ‘common-sense’ truths; this is further explored below and in Chapter 2. Although Dreamfields’ public discourse clearly states what the school is attempting to do and implements a policy with which to do it, my questions are concerned with what the discourses deployed by Dreamfields actually do and how they are translated into everyday practices of the self (Foucault, 2001). It explores how individual pupils, teachers and parents come to act on themselves and others in relation to Dreamfields’ discourses.

The research examines how Dreamfields fits within a wider trajectory of education policy and local governance. The academy’s discourses draw on historical representations rooted in empire, industrial capitalism and the development of classificatory mechanisms which constitute raced and classed forms of personhood. I interrogate how Dreamfields governs through a range of disciplinary practices before asking how students, parents and teachers interpret and receive these practices from a variety of situated positions. The research builds a complex, yet incomplete picture illuminating how neoliberal modes of governance play out in daily practice. This action occurs against the backdrop of the evangelical promotion of social mobility and meritocracy, despite increasing poverty and the continued dismantlement of the post-war settlement. I set out to provide a contextualised study of the education market in action by showing the implications neoliberal reforms and a result-driven focus have on the shaping of subjectivities. The book approaches these questions by putting Dreamfields’ institutional discourses in conversation with the narratives of students, teachers and parents in order to place the macro, micro and shades in between in relation to one another. As discussed in Chapter 2, the research draws on ethnographic, interview and participatory methods to examine the research questions. Now I will use ethnographic fieldnotes to introduce and reflect on the Dreamfields ethos.

Building aspirational spaces and futures²

It was a late July morning in 2011 and my last day of fieldwork at Dreamfields. It was also the end-of-year assembly when over 900 pupils from Years 7 to 11 are brought together in the sports hall for speeches and awards. Fitting all these bodies into one room was a meticulously executed operation and the school was abuzz with hushed excitement. The sounds of the school band filled the room until headteacher Culford took the podium. The room fell silent as he asked students to spend a couple of moments reflecting on the year and what they had or had not achieved. The heavy silence of hundreds of bodies shifting in plastic chairs was finally broken by Culford saying that students should never take these years for granted because the past year was a year they would never have again. He reiterated this point with such sombre conviction that I started to reflect on the previous year with newfound regret – I could have, I should have done more. Culford also urged students not to take Dreamfields for granted, pointing out the numerous advantages they had, how lucky they were and how good Dreamfields was compared to other schools. He repeated the frequently referenced Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) report which described it as outstanding. Besides the amazing extracurricular activities and lessons, Culford pointed out what a wonderful building they had to learn in. He described how many schools he had visited across England were depressing places to spend the day, while Dreamfields was light, airy and open. Culford confessed that he had never given much thought to buildings before working with architects on Dreamfields’ building, but he was now very aware of design.

Large images of familiar skyscrapers and prestigious buildings in central Goldport were projected onto the wall. Culford said he found these iconic buildings and centres of global finance important because they showed man’s power to effect change. Regarding these towering beacons of capital, Culford pronounced that the world does not impact upon us, but we have the power to impact on the world and effect change through bold ambition. He qualified this claim with a quick underthe-breath aside that sometimes the world did affect us, but forged onwards, adding that he wanted Dreamfields students to be ambitious. Culford used the example of ancient cave paintings to demonstrate how ‘man’ had chosen to impact on the world by showing human ingenuity. And because of Dreamfields’ no-excuses culture, it meant that it did not matter what background you were from – you could and would achieve here.

Culford then showed a picture of Larchmont Grove, the comprehensive school that Dreamfields had replaced. An image of a decrepit pre-fab building mottled with graffiti was placed beside an image of Dreamfields’ gleaming new structure, juxtaposing the failure of the past with the success of the present. Finally, Culford announced that there were currently 12 million Somalians starving. In response we should appreciate what we have and give money to worthy causes, as this was all we could do to help. After this curt conclusion to a complex geopolitical disaster, he asked students to close their eyes, bow their heads and think about people who were sick, dead, or in trouble. A grave silence followed until Culford raised his head and left the podium. Gradually the mood lightened as the band launched into the feelgood hit ‘Forget You’ by CeeLo Green.

The message of Culford’s assembly speech was similar to those preceding it: aspirational subjects can transcend structural inequalities through sheer determination. ‘Structure’ liberates students from their positioning, making poverty or racial inequality irrelevant. Culford has described Dreamfields Academy as an ‘oasis in the desert’ of Urbanderry, positioning the borough as culturally deficient while also justifying the use of disciplinarian approaches. Meanwhile, monuments to capital in wealthier districts of Goldport represent success and a wonderland of infinite possibility accessible to newly mobile subjects. Like the smaller weekly assemblies that conclude with students bowing their heads in self-reflection, the self and its achievements are continuously scrutinised and act as the focal point for intervention. Culford works hard to instigate a belief that mobility dreams can come true, reiterating the advantages held by Dreamfields students. Larchmont Grove’s crumbling remains are employed to signify the supposed failure of comprehensive education to provide these opportunities. Dreamfields marks a break with this failure by asserting that students can write their own biographies (Beck, Giddens and Lash, 1994).

Approaching the site

Urbanderry is an ethnically diverse borough. In addition to residents from white British and other white backgrounds, there are substantial black British Caribbean and black British African populations, as well as Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Bangladeshi and Pakistani residents. Crime rates are falling, but remain higher than the Goldport average, while significant amounts of residents receive benefits and live in social housing. Housing in the borough is disproportionately costly and gentrification has long been under way, making Urbanderry a popular destination for middle-class professionals. A mixture of estates and increasingly expensive Victorian properties surrounds Dreamfields. Growing inequalities are often brought into sharp relief through the geographic proximity of rich and poor residents (Dorling, 2014). To the north-east of Dreamfields several speciality shops stand adjacent to a block of council housing. Further north is a street lined with cafés and boutiques where patrons tinker on iPads and eat expensive sandwiches. These residents coexist with other residents like the Urbanderry Boys, a local gang. One café’s sign announces that pavement seating is for customers only, while the one or two chicken and kebab shops left on the street and a small collection of public benches host a very different audience. These classed and racialised divisions in urban space are rendered highly visible due to their intense proximity, highlighting how a social mix does not infer mixing or subsequent social parity, as cleavages run across social and material space (see Benson and Jackson, 2012; Butler and Robson, 2003; Byrne, 2006; Hollingworth and Mansaray, 2012). Flattening out these glaring disparities is a key feature of Dreamfields’ aspirational narrative, yet what signifies gritty appeal for some is actual danger for others.

As previously mentioned, I became acquainted with Dreamfields through my employment at the school. I had never intended to work in a school – an establishment I had few fond memories of – yet the contradictory complexities of this space brought together a number of my previous interests in unanticipated ways. Shortly after moving to Goldport with my partner, we discovered that his relative had taken a post at a new academy adjacent to our flat. While I was in need of some part-time work to supplement my work as a writer and performer, Dreamfields needed extra hands to move boxes and furniture into classrooms in frantic preparation for its September opening. A few days’ heavy lifting became a long-term, part-time job, first teaching drama and later working as a learning mentor. Initially I was bewildered by Dreamfields’ dynamic, disciplinarian environment. While it was undeniably positive to watch pupils receive excellent grades, the securitised, authoritarian atmosphere felt uncomfortably draconian. Yet it was repeatedly stressed in staff briefings that structure was good for students – it allowed teachers to teach and students to learn. It appeared to work, so I placed my reservations aside and trie...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Series editor’s foreword
• 1 Building new narratives: academies, aspiration and the education market
• 2 Research frameworks: historical representations and formations of race and class meet neoliberal governance
• 3 Disciplining Dreamfields Academy: a ‘well-oiled machine’ to combat urban chaos
• 4 Cohering contradictions and manufacturing belief in Dreamfields’ ‘good empire’
• 5 ‘Urban children’ meet the ‘buffer zone’: mapping the inequitable foundations of Dreamfields’ conveyor belt
• 6 Students navigating and negotiating the conveyor belt: aspiration, loss, endurance and fantasy
• 7 Urban chaos and the imagined other: remaking middle-class hegemony
• 8 Remaking inequalities in the neoliberal institution
• References
• Index