Show, tell and leave nothing to the imagination: How critical social justice is undermining British schooling
Jo-Anne Nadler, May 2023
Writer and broadcaster Jo-Anne Nadler provides a thought-provoking analysis of trends in UK schooling which she describes as a ‘Social Justice Educational Complex’ that threatens core values of impartiality and universality in our schools.
Nadler argues that a ‘revolution’ delivered ‘largely by stealth’ is supported by a burgeoning industry of external providers and often self-declared ‘expert’ consultants on issues such as race, equity, gender and sexuality.
This publication reviews controversial concepts introduced in schools through the ‘Relationships, Sex and Health Education’ (RSHE) curriculum as part of a wider ideology. She explains how what can be seen as a specific worldview has come to permeate schooling through a deliberate process of embedding, advocated by activists and by governments alike.
Two separate polling exercises commissioned for this report find that contentious ideas are seemingly widespread in schools, with evidence too that these are not always presented in accordance within the legal obligations to impartiality. This polling found that almost half of pupils felt uncomfortable challenging contentious ideas at school and a large majority of parents want unrestricted legal rights to see all RSHE materials and lesson plans.
Responding to this evidence, Jo-Anne Nadler recommends parents come together to form a ‘Union of Parents’ and that urgent steps need to be taken to give parents more power to see what is going on in our schools system.
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