ABSTRACT
In chapter 2, we investigate how the epistemology of education has been contested at the political level, illustrating how power courses through the field of education in general by exploring the notion of power from a Bourdieusian and Foucauldian standpoint. The chapter interweaves critiques of school-system reform with an explication of the scientific methodologies used which emphasize their legitimacy through the accepted analytical neutrality of their supposed expertise. This twofold critique is about illustrating the sophisticated education policy “common sense” or “doxa” that accompanies performance measures and which of late, in nations such as the UK and Australia, aligns closely to a social justice agenda whilst emphasizing stronger commitments to standards in curriculum and teaching practice/s and other school-system compliance structures. In effect, this “common sense” narrative has adopted a scientific guise wielded as a form of power over the field and of how teachers do their work. It is manifest in the quantitative and statistical knowledge that “counts” as worthwhile about education so that “knowing” and understanding the field are only legitimate via this epistemology.
