Conclusion: Further Confusion: Kingman, Cox, the National Curriculum and After

Abstract

The first edition of this book concluded with the previous chapter — on the ‘standard language’ question in British educational debates and cultural controversies of the 1980s. Specifically it dealt with the way in which various theorists of the new right used this concept to further their own ideological positions. It ended with Gramsci’s observation on the significance of language debates as pointers to larger political issues. Towards the end of the 1980s, and thus beyond the scope of this book at the time of its publication, two significant reports were commissioned by the British State into the teaching of the English language in schools, a fact which illustrates the influence of new-right educational thinking among the Conservative government of the day and which confirms Gramsci’s assertion. As a result of those reports the most momentous change in the British educational system for over half a century took place: the introduction of a National Curriculum with English as one of the key subjects within it.