How and why do the ideas of the nineteenth-century critic and educator Matthew Arnold continue to influence education today?
Category Archives: culture
Representing youth culture
A new museum, an online archive and a film season offer some great resources for researching – and teaching about – youth culture. Taken together, they raise some interesting questions about who represents youth culture, and how we define it.
Education policy and the ‘war on woke’
In the past few years, education has become one of the key fronts in the so-called ‘culture wars’. It’s a development that is likely to prove extremely damaging for teachers and students.
Enemies of promise? Education, culture and meritocracy under the Conservatives
The argument for restoring ‘traditional’ forms of education is based on dubious claims about social justice. Why the argument for meritocracy needs to be challenged.
Teaching Culture: The Missionary Position
The attempt to civilize the uncultured masses is coming back into style. I look back to the Leavisite approach to popular culture, and its place in the history of English teaching.
The curriculum of Brexit: culture, education and power the Michaela Way
The changing currency of ‘cultural capital’
The English schools inspectors are apparently looking for schools to teach ‘cultural capital’. But what does cultural capital mean, and how is it changing?
