Failed progressive initiatives swing working-class hopes toward traditionalist education policies

Evidence

But it is also the case that, as the failure of social-democratic initiatives to turn the tide of educational disadvantage becomes more manifest, so the positive aspirations of working people for the education of their children can be re-articulated toward the support for a more conventional and traditional approach to the educational marketplace. This great exodus back to known and familiar territory, to tried pathways, to the traditional and the orthodox, to the safe territory of what is, is one of the strongest and deepest of commonsense sentiments: and, for that reason, one of the most resonant themes in the discourse of the radical Right. In the 1960s, “parent power” belonged with the radical movements, with Ivan Illich and “deschooling.” In the 1970s and 1980s it was one of the strongest cards in the educational pack shuffled by Tory education spokespersons. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1127

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Hall’s broader theory in this volume that commonsense and ‘authoritarian populism’ are how the Right wins cultural hegemony without winning the argument. — connects to: Education suffers a crisis worsened by progressives disregarding teaching