Power relations and English education: the changing role of central government

Abstract

This paper examines the different ways in which, in England, national policies for education may be put into practice through the activities of that part of the central government administrative machinery responsible for education ‐ the Department of Education and Science (DES). The paper distinguishes between the necessarily weak procedures for bureaucratic accountability that provide for overt control in such a formally decentralized system and the increasingly significant, covert influence the DES can exert through various forms of indirect evaluative activity. In particular, it is suggested, it is the ability of central government through the DES to exert its influence indirectly by influencing the criteria of professional, self‐imposed accountability which is most critical in determining the impact of policy priorities. Such influence which utilizes the legitimate channels of professional discourse typically becomes incorporated into the various evaluative criteria influencing teachers’ own self‐imposed goals. Thus it is argued, whilst the current accountability movement is associated with significant measures to increase the overt control of the DES, its impact on the articulation of professional priorities, because it is largely unremarked, is likely to be a great deal more significant.