ABSTRACT
There has always been more to English than acquiring basic skills. In a book called Bringing English to Order (1990), Ivor Goodson and Peter Medway argue that ‘English has been the means through which powerful groups, especially governments, have sought to achieve ends which were … not neutrally “educational” ’. They picture English as a ‘battleground’ where ‘groups with agendas’ clash. English as a subject has always been involved in political debates.
