The COVID-19 pandemic closed schools, but this hiatus provided an opportunity to rethink the fundamental principles of our education system.

In this thought-provoking book, Alice Bradbury discusses how, before the pandemic, the education system assumed ability to be measurable and innate, and how this meritocracy myth reinforced educational inequalities – a central issue during the crisis.

Drawing on a project dealing with ability-grouping practices, Bradbury analyses how the recent educational developments of datafication and neuroscience have revised these ideas about how we classify and label children, and how we can rethink the idea of innate intelligence as we rebuild a post-pandemic schooling system.

"Though the author speaks about the English school system, this book is a valuable addition to feminist pedagogy anywhere. It expands upon a framework for critiquing the educational “normal” and encourages us to question how education works, including its oppressiveness." Feminist Pedagogy

Alice Bradbury is Associate Professor in the Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity at the UCL Institute of Education and Co-Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy 0-11 years. Before moving into academia, she worked as a primary teacher in London. She has conducted a number of research projects on the impact of education policies on inequalities. She was awarded BERA Impact Award 2016 for her work on Baseline Assessment.