As a teacher and school leader, I have long believed in the importance of promoting values like mutual respect and tolerance – essential parts of the so-called fundamental British values (FBVs) embedded in our educational framework (DfE, 2014), which also inform Part 2 of the Teachers’ Standards for England (DfE, 2011).
But in recent years, I have found myself walking an increasingly thin line between championing these values and adhering to government guidance on political impartiality.
The mainstreaming of populist rhetoric, on both sides of the political spectrum, but particularly the so-called “hard right”, has made this balancing act harder than ever (for an interesting discussion on the rise of populism in Britain, see Davies & MacRae, 2023).
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