Conscientious Objectors: Teachers and the Battle for the Secondary English Curriculum

In White Collar: The American Middle Class, C Wright Mills describes teachers as the “economic proletarians of the professions” (1959, pg. 129). His argument is that despite the professional status and salary, teachers have little control over the conditions or realisation of their work. Mills’ claim is a fitting provocation in the context of the recent refresh (2023) and subsequent rewrite (2025) of the English curriculum. More to the point, Mills’ view of teachers as ‘state labour’ raises (at least) two questions about the role of teachers in relation to state policy.