Factories for Learning : Making Race, Class and Inequality in the Neoliberal Academy

Over half of England's secondary schools are now academies. 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, to show how the accelerated marketization and centralization of education is reproducing raced, classed and gendered inequalities. Urbanderry is a socially and economically mixed borough where poverty and gentrification coexist. The book sketches out the key features of Dreamfields' ethos before reflecting on the historical trajectories that underpin how education, urban space and formations of race, class and gender are discussed in the present. 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. The book 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. It also examines how hierarchies are being reformulated. The book interrogates the social and cultural dimensions of this gift that seeks to graft more 'suitable' forms of capital onto its students. The focus is 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. Dreamfields acts as a symbolic and material response to the supposed failures of comprehensive education and public anxieties over the loss of nationhood and prestige of empire. Cover -- Factories for learning -- 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 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. Front matter Contents List of figures Foreword Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Series editor’s foreword Building new narratives: academies, aspiration and the education market Research frameworks: historical representations and formations of race and class meet neoliberal governance Disciplining Dreamfields Academy: a ‘well-oiled machine’ to combat urban chaos Cohering contradictions and manufacturing belief in Dreamfields’ ‘good empire’ ‘Urban children’ meet the ‘buffer zone’: mapping the inequitable foundations of Dreamfields’ conveyor belt Students navigating and negotiating the conveyor belt: aspiration, loss, endurance and fantasy Urban chaos and the imagined other: remaking middle-class hegemony Remaking inequalities in the neoliberal institution References Index This book draws on research at Dreamfields Academy, a celebrated secondary school, to explore how neoliberal education models reproduce raced and classed inequalities. -- . This title draws on research at Dreamfields Academy, a celebrated secondary school, to explore how neoliberal education models reproduce raced and classed inequalities