This book builds upon Stephen J. Ball's previous work in the field of education policy analysis. It subjects the ongoing reforms in UK education to a rigorous critical interrogation. It takes as its main concerns the introduction of market forces, managerialism and the National Curriculum into the organization of schools and the work of teachers. Ball argues that these reforms are combining to fundamentally reconstruct the work of teaching, to generate and ramify multiple inequalities and to destroy civic virtue in education.

Do private and philanthropic solutions to the problems of education signal the end of state education in its 'welfare' form? Education policy is being reformed and re-worked on a global scale. Policies are flowing and converging to produce a singular vision of 'best practice' based on the methods and tenets of the 'neo-liberal imaginary'. Philanthropy, business and the governments are coming together in new networks and sites of policy outside of the framework of the nation state. This book is a first step in recording, mapping and making sense of the most important aspects of these new...

In this fully updated edition of The Education Debate, Stephen J. Ball guides us through a flood of government initiatives and policies concerning education over the past twenty years, showing how these policy interventions have changed the landscape and meaning of education, turned children into learners and parents into consumers, and played their part in the reformation of contemporary governance. Analyzing current policies and ideas around education from a sociological approach, he addresses issues of class, choice, globalization, race, and citizenship. The book will interest...

This topical book uses network analysis and interviews with key actors to address the changes in education, with a focus on education and the role of new philanthropy.