Optimierung im englischen Schulsystem: Was Lernende sagen

This paper explores the effects of extreme optimisation i.e. the marketised ideologies of neoliberalism in the context of English school policy. We draw on the perspectives of secondary school students, who are usually under-represented in education research, to examine this issue. The research project in which they were collected focused on schools that were attempting to improve support and provision for disadvantaged learners and compensate for the negative effects of neoliberal »optimization« policy. The findings reveal that the focus of optimisation on achievement and standardization reduced the effectiveness of these compensatory measures and restricted opportunities to listen to students or to connect learning with their interests and contexts.