Precarity Tees: May 19th 2016 Dr Ewan Ingleby @EwanIngleby

Objectives Development of my Precarity Tees Blog reflection Exemplify the link between economic structures and educational precarity

The UK Context? Wires Philip Larkin The wildest prairies have electric fences For though the cattle know they must not stray Young cattle are always after purer water Not here but anywhere beyond the wires   Leads them to blunder up against the wires Whose muscle-shredding violence gives no quarter. Young cattle become old from that day, Electric limits to their wildest senses.   

English Education ‘The end product is what we value’ (DfES 2008, BIS 2009) ‘English educators are obsessed with reaching final destinations- as if we’re on a yellow brick road!’ Mathias Urban (2008 and 2009). “Some will say this is an old-fashioned view, but I say that giving every child the chance to master the basics and succeed in life is a fundamental duty of any government. They should be able to write a short story with accurate punctuation, spelling and grammar” Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education, February 2015.

Precarious English Education Literacy and numeracy is determined by economic structures (Hall and Soskice 2001, Knauder, Weiss and SchÖman 2015) In the EU, those nation states with liberal/neoliberal economies have ‘precarious’ levels of literacy compared to those states with ‘coordinated’ economies (OECD 2013) Economy, not pedagogy, determines precarity in education in England and elsewhere!

References BBC News. “Nicky Morgan Announces War on Illiteracy and Innumeracy”. Accessed May 12th 2016 at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31079515 Department for Business Innovations and Skills. 2009. Higher Ambitions. Norwich: HMSO. Department for Education and Skills. 2003.The Future of Higher Education. Norwich: HMSO. Hall A, and D. Soskice. 2001. Varieties Of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations Of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Knauber. C., C. Weiss, K. SchÖman. 2015. “The Role of Governance Structures in the explanation of Literacy Outcomes. Multi-level and Case-Study Analysis.” Paper presented at the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Science Conference, Bremen, Germany, 24-25 September. OECD. 2013. Education at a Glance 2013: OECD Indicators. OECD Publishing. Urban, M., 2008. Dealing with Uncertainty: Challenges and Possibilities for the Early Childhood Profession. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 16 (2): 135-152. Urban, M., 2009. “Strategies for Change: Rethinking Professional Development to Meet the Challenges of Diversity in the Early Years Profession.” Paper presented at the IPDA Conference, Birmingham, UK, 27-28 November.