The Emergence of the ‘Powerful Knowledge’ Model of English? Is this the Sixth Cox Model? A Case Study of England

This article reviews how the School Subject of English [SSE], may be hard to define but one consistent element in its history has been the concept of various ‘models of English’. The focus here is on SSE in England as a contemporary case study in retro-conservative times. In England the models’ concept had a very powerful influence on the design of the first National Curriculum for English [NCE], legally constituted in 1990. At the time of writing England is currently undergoing a major curriculum review [DfE, 2025]. In 1989, the Cox committee Report, which was the basis for the first NCE, suggested five models, Personal Growth, Adult Needs, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Analysis and Cross-curricular. These models are discussed as they continue to be present and significant in contemporary SSE [DES 1989a, b ]. There is also a necessary and complex consideration of various historical phases of SSE which help to explain how a new model may arise. It is argued that this most recent phase is a principally retro-conservative episode, increasingly dominated by social realist notions of ‘Powerful Knowledge’ [PK] embedded in a, so called, ‘knowledge rich curriculum’ (Alderson, 2019). A ‘Cox-like’ PK model of SSE is theorised and presented to interpret what has happened to both the curriculum and associated pedagogies and the identity of English teachers (Goodwyn, 2003). It is partly based on a research project which investigated the philosophy of SSE determined by powerful leaders of English in the retro-conservative model of schooling called Multi Academy Trusts [MATS (Multi Academy Trusts: In the 1990s, a Labour party initiative created ‘Academies’, to raise standards in problematic inner city schools. One feature was to remove Local Authority funding and support/control, with money coming directly from central government. The Labour idea was to fund a very few challenging schools and to enhance their capabilities, principally as part of the National Literacy Strategy [for an account see Goodwyn & Fuller, 2011]. This legislative power was over taken by the Conservative government to encourage as many schools as possible to become academies by leaving their Local Authority. Becoming an Academy meant receiving a large grant and the right to employ anyone as a teacher and to determine pay scales. Teachers did not need Qualified Teacher Status. From that point on, many such academies federated into Multi Academy Trusts [MATs] which are able to determine their own curriculum, they do not follow the National Curriculum and are not subject to Ofsted Inspections. Estimates vary but somewhere between 60 and 70% of schools are academies or becoming one. Many Trusts now have over 50–70 schools and they are not geographically proximate and therefore not subject to any real local control.) – specifically English terms like these are explained in the end notes]. Using a Critical Realist lens it is argued that the PK model of English has become dominant through a conflation of various controlling structural mechanisms such as high stakes testing, a rigid inspection system and the removal of local democratic control of schools. An oppressive structural ideology, posing as a form of neoliberalism, has been imposed to minimise teacher and student agency. This rhetorically neoliberal move has affected all school subjects but English has been most severely affected because its combined earlier models, especially Personal Growth, foregrounded teacher and student agency. The PK model’s current dominance is conceptualised as totally inappropriate and antagonistic to the historical purpose of SSE and can be expected to diminish if the retro-conservative imperative is reduced. Multi Academy Trusts: In the 1990s, a Labour party initiative created ‘Academies’, to raise standards in problematic inner city schools. One feature was to remove Local Authority funding and support/control, with money coming directly from central government. The Labour idea was to fund a very few challenging schools and to enhance their capabilities, principally as part of the National Literacy Strategy [for an account see Goodwyn & Fuller, 2011]. This legislative power was over taken by the Conservative government to encourage as many schools as possible to become academies by leaving their Local Authority. Becoming an Academy meant receiving a large grant and the right to employ anyone as a teacher and to determine pay scales. Teachers did not need Qualified Teacher Status. From that point on, many such academies federated into Multi Academy Trusts [MATs] which are able to determine their own curriculum, they do not follow the National Curriculum and are not subject to Ofsted Inspections. Estimates vary but somewhere between 60 and 70% of schools are academies or becoming one. Many Trusts now have over 50–70 schools and they are not geographically proximate and therefore not subject to any real local control.