Bad science, worse politics

Abstract

Gove is absolutely committed to the neoliberal agenda of pushing schools into private management as academies and free schools. He is also driven by nostalgia for traditional teaching and content (grammar tests, his ‘glorious heritage’ view of English history, etc), and propped up by special advisers who substitute elitist ideologies for the educational knowledge they lack. Early in October, a document from Michael Gove’s top adviser Dominic Cummings was leaked to the Guardian. It reveals some of the strange ideas driving Government policy – ideas which even Gove can’t openly admit.