'The very best generation of teachers ever': teachers in post-2010 ministerial speeches

This article explores how teachers were discursively positioned in England following the formation of the Coalition government in 2010, using a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of 363 speeches produced by government ministers. Findings show that young teachers were privileged in post-2010 government discourse, constructed as valued and active social agents. Experienced teachers, however, were constructed as passive and deficient, albeit useful for training new teachers. The findings indicate the deployment of a biopolitical apparatus which sought to hierarchically distinguish between different groups of teachers in order to facilitate system reform.