Education, neoliberalism and the consumer citizen: after the golden age of egalitarian reform

In this paper I attempt to explore the implications for education policy arising from aspects of Third Way political thought and its troubled relation to neoliberalism. In particular, the implications for equality arising from Third Way reforms to secondary education are considered. The limits of contestation that mark out the centre ground of UK politics have become increasingly consolidated around neoliberal ideas and principles. I briefly outline a ‘golden age’ of egalitarian reform and its displacement by the emergence of neoliberalism. Neoliberal restructuring is implicated in the emergence of the market state, the establishment of the relation of the individual to the state as one of consumer citizen, the growth of individualism, and a likely increase in competition to fend off downward social mobility. The paper concludes that the future compass for reforms aimed at reducing educational inequality now looks increasingly restricted and narrowed.