ABSTRACT
Beginning with the question, ‘What makes a free school a free school?’, some conceptions of educational freedom are examined, along with contingent unfreedoms, in particular the freedom to pursue the ‘common good’ in the context of prescribed ‘British values’, and the freedom to ‘do God’ provided that it conform to the un-freedom prescribed by the Secretary of State to eschew ‘extremism’. The implications for Voluntary Aided and Voluntary Controlled faith schools (‘schools with a religious foundation’) are set out, and the theoretical possibility examined of whether a ‘little platoon’ might ever be free to establish a Free School with an atheist-humanist ethos, since this would conflict with the unfreedoms of mandatory Religious Education in the National Curriculum, and the ‘daily act of collective worship’. The notions of positive and negative freedom (Berlin/Hayek) are explored – ‘freedom from’ and ‘freedom to’ – along with the democratic tensions inherent in liberating schools from any local authority oversight or input. Finally, Michael Gove’s personal educational philosophy of education is expounded, drawing on speeches in which he invoked the liberal philosophical heritage of Thomas Paine, Alexis de Tocqueville, Michael Oakeshott, JS Mill and Adam Smith, with appeal to ‘the Scottish Enlightenment ideal of the Democratic Intellect’.
