UK (Staffordshire University) Milestones or Millstones? Reflections on Education Policy Processes

This inaugural lecture presents a critical analysis of education policy processes over a sixty-year span.

During this time, the educational landscape has seen a seismic shift, moving from a social democratic welfarist approach to a culture of performance-based accountability.

Successive governments in Britain have reformed and restructured education introducing managerialism, marketisation and privatisation in the pursuit of efficiency, effectiveness and enterprise.

Gill examines the complex relationship between externally driven change, professional practice and the lived experience of policies.

Drawing on examples from her own education and career as a university researcher Gill examines some of the profound and far-reaching changes in education which have impacted pupils, parents, teachers and leaders in schools, and students and academics in higher education.