The strange case of querying Gove’s cultural capital legacy

The recent inclusion of cultural capital into the English Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (2019) caused a ripple of discontent within some educational circles, with some suggesting it is indicative of ‘white, middle-class paternalism’. Here, we consider the political rise of Bourdieu’s concept of ‘cultural capital’ within the English Education Inspection Framework (2019), given that it now affects all English schools subject to Ofsted’s inspection. We alsoexplore how one of the 19th Century texts in the GCSE English literature curriculum can be analysed through a queer prism, to offer a thought-provoking inclusive interpretation of the narrative and release its queer cultural capital. Finally, we invite classroom practitioners to deliberate their current pedagogical actions and consider adopting a queer pedagogy to counteract the pervasive heteronormativity that embeds assumptions of heterosexuality within school ecosystems; thuschallenging the discomforting otherness and insidious silencing regimes that position LGBTQ identities as taboo and off topic.