A lot has been written about the lasting implications of the Conservative reforms to English schooling, particularly changes made by Michael Gove as Education Secretary (2010–2014). There is a lot less work, however, on studying the role that language, strategy and the broader political framework played in the process of instituting and winning consent for these reforms. Studying these factors is important for ensuring that any changes to education and schooling are not read in isolation from their political context. Speeches particularly capture moments where intellectual and strategic political traditions meet, helping us to form a richer understanding of the motives behind specific reform goals and where they fit into a political landscape. This article analyses speeches and policy documents from prominent politicians who led the Conservative education agenda between 2010–2014 to illustrate how politicians mobilised a deliberate populist strategy and argumentation to achieve specific educational goals, but which have had broader social and political implications. Concepts from interpretive political studies are used to develop a case analysis of changes to teacher training provision and curriculum reform, illustrating how politicians constructed a frontier between ‘the people’ (commonly teachers or parents) and an illegitimate ‘elite’ (an educational establishment) that opposed change. This anti‐elite populist rhetoric, arguably first tested in the Department for Education, has now become instituted more widely in our current British politics.

中文翻译：

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逻辑，修辞学和“斑点”：英语教育保守改革中的民粹主义逻辑

保守派改革对英语教育的持久影响已有很多报道，特别是迈克尔·戈夫（Michael Gove）担任教育部长（2010–2014）所做的改变。但是，在研究语言，战略和更广泛的政治框架在建立和赢得这些改革的同意过程中所起的作用方面，工作量要少得多。研究这些因素对于确保不要将教育和学校的任何变化与其政治背景相隔离是很重要的。演讲特别记录了知识分子和战略政治传统相遇的时刻，有助于我们对特定改革目标背后的动机及其与政治格局的契合度有更深入的了解。本文分析了在2010-2014年间领导保守教育议程的著名政客的演讲和政策文件，以说明政客如何动员蓄意的民粹主义策略和论点以实现特定的教育目标，但它们具有更广泛的社会和政治意义。解释性政治研究的概念用于对教师培训提供和课程改革的变化进行案例分析，说明政治人物如何在“人民”（通常是教师或父母）和私立的“精英”（教育机构）之间建立边界。反对改变。这种反精英的民粹主义言论，可以说首先在教育部得到了检验，现在已经在我们当前的英国政治中得到了更广泛的应用。