Class not dismissed: Tough Young Teachers and Teach First
The BBC3 series Tough Young Teachers – which finishes on the 13th of February – tells us as much about the British class system as it does about the classroom. According to Sarah Smart, the controversial ‘Teach First’ programme, which trains graduates to work in ‘challenging’ schools and whose recruits are followed in the television series, consistently reproduces unhelpful stereotypes about class. Smart’s concern isn’t whether the programme – designed to provide graduates with skills for later employment and schools with good teachers – is successful, but rather “the way in which