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English Education Policy after New Labour: Big Society or Back to Basics?
Author(s) -
GOODWIN MARK
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the political quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.373
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-923X
pISSN - 0032-3179
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-923x.2011.02201.x
Subject(s) - coalition government , government (linguistics) , context (archaeology) , politics , corporate governance , public administration , public service , service (business) , political science , public policy , education policy , political economy , sociology , economics , public relations , higher education , economic growth , law , management , economy , paleontology , philosophy , linguistics , biology
This article considers possible future directions for education policy and public service governance under the Conservative‐led coalition government. The article considers the extent to which Conservatives might develop a distinctive strategy for managing public services that breaks decisively with that of the New Labour era. The coalition faces a markedly different political and economic context for public service reform compared to its predecessor. This article argues that these contextual constraints make a continuation of the New Labour governing strategy less viable, but unresolved tensions in the coalition education policies enacted to date may hinder the development of a novel project for education reform. As a consequence, the New Labour education project seems likely to remain largely intact for the foreseeable future.