Challenging ability, inequality and the myth of meritocracy in the post-pandemic era

Abstract

The final chapter brings together this discussion of the two educational developments by considering their commonalities and points of difference, and how they coalesce in ways which allow for discourses of ability as fixed and measurable to be reinvigorated. The multiple conceptions of ability are discussed, and it is argued that the slippages between them do not preclude their combined impact of maintaining inequalities. The chapter considers who the ‘winners’ are in the game of meritocracy, which is based on these discourses of ability, and the barriers to thinking differently about individuals. The chapter concludes by considering the future of ability and a post-pandemic hope for the alteration of priorities and practices, despite the continuation of the neoliberal ideology that underpins education policy, and the hope that the idea of ability as fixed and measurable – and the inequalities that result - can be disrupted.