Resisting evidence-based policy hegemonies in a post-truth climate

This chapter explores the work of two educational leaders in a policy climate complicated by the broader mechanism of post-truth, under which subjectivity and relatively challenge conventions of truth-telling. Drawing on the theoretical work of Antonio Gramsci (1971) on the formation and power of cultural hegemonies, I argue that the evidence-based policy space draws on the discursive power of ‘evidence’ to form an impenetrable policy space. Writing from the contemporary policy context in Victoria, Australia, where a recent suite of policy draws heavily on evidence-based rationalities, and interviews with two leaders from Victorian schools, this chapter illustrates the difficulties of resisting restrictive policy trends within a policy landscape that draws upon powerful discursive tools to coerce its leaders into acquiescence. The central argument of this chapter is that the rise of evidence-based discourses alongside a cultural proliferation of scientific distrust and scepticism strengthens education’s alignment with evidence-based policy, associating scepticism with other forms of science denialism and complicating the possibilities for resistance through expressions of doubt, scepticism, and questioning.