KEVIN J. BREHONY is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Reading . He was elected to the Executive Committee of the British Sociological Association in 1991 and was Honorary Treasurer of the Association 1993-96. He has published extensively in the fields of history of education and education policy. He is on the Editorial Board of Sociological Research Online, an electronic journal and with Rosemary Deem and Sue Heath he wrote Active Citizenship and the Governing of Schools (1995). NAZ RASSOOL is Lecturer in Education at the University of Reading. She has published in the area of the sociology of technology in education, women's studies and the political economy of national language policy. She is the author of Literacy for Sustainable Development. She is the co-author with Louise Mehess for forthcoming book provides a critical perspective of the school effectiveness discourse.