Surveillance and Morality: Revisiting the Education Reform Act (1988) in the United Kingdom

Recently, there has been an increased interest in British educational provision arising form the consequences of the Education Reform Act (1988). The ERA was pivotal insofar as it precipitated what has been a relentless neo-liberal political campaign to legitimise 'choice' for parents and place 'power' within Schools. However, the use of school technologies that focus on 'assessment' and 'inspection', can, in this policy climate, become a means of surveillance and enforcement of morality and educational practice in the United Kingdom. Smart (1985) argues that the work of Michel Foucault (1977) can be characterised as 'neo-Marxist' and subsequently offers a set of theoretical strategies for understanding how policy discourses on education construct and control children's experiences and their identities, as constructed objects/subjects of knowledge.