Doing without believing - enacting policy in the English primary school

• Published in: Critical studies in education Vol. 61; no. 4; pp. 433 - 447
• Main Authors: Braun, Annette, Maguire, Meg
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melbourne Routledge 07.08.2020; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Affect; Education policy; Educational evaluation; Educational Policy; Educational Practices; Elementary Education; Elementary School Students; Elementary School Teachers; Elementary schools; Evaluation Methods; Foreign Countries; Neoliberalism; performativity; Policy Analysis; policy enactment; primary school; primary teachers; School Policy; Student Evaluation; Teacher Attitudes; teacher subjectivity; Values; United Kingdom (London)
• ISSN: 1750-8487; 1750-8495
• DOI: 10.1080/17508487.2018.1500384

This paper explores how six English primary school teachers enact assessment and attainment-focused policy and asks what this performative policy work does and whether it shapes or requires a new kind of primary teacher subjectivity. The paper draws on a small study of policy enactments in two primary schools in Greater London in order to discuss two dimensions of policy enactment that emerged from our data: first, shifting assessment regimes in primary schools which create an enactment environment of second-guessing policy; second, a shift in focus from the individual child to targeted groups that raises questions about more traditional primary school values. The paper concludes with a reflection on the effects of contradictory values and practices and how this policy context creates a form of 'doing without believing' in the English primary school.