ABSTRACT
The government do not admit to being motivated themselves by any particular ideologies or discourses. To them it is the teachers who have suffered from ideology, for they have been under the influence of Plowdenesque childcentredness, which too often has left children to their own devices, been too woolly minded, neglected the basics, and been complacent about unsatisfactory standards (Woods and Wenham, 1995). The government’s firm standpoint, on the other hand, represents a drive for ‘common sense’, straight thinking, and new forms of rigour (Ibid.). In effect, however, as we saw in the Introduction, the government-and Ofsted-are driven by a highly distinctive set of values, which are markedly opposed to those of a majority of primary teachers.
