This is the tale of two education ministers - both in power at the same time, but both ploughing remarkably different furrows with remarkably different approaches and remarkably different philosophies.

Watching Justine Greening, education secretary, and Nick Gibb, minister for school standards, go about their business, you would be forgiven for thinking that they weren’t working in the same era, in the same department, or indeed the same government.

This is an extremely unusual situation - perhaps only paralleled by the Andrew Adonis’s tenure as a very powerful schools minister in the mid-Naughties.

Within the last fortnight, Greening and Gibb have made high-profile appearances at very different events. The nature of these functions and how they presented themselves tells us a lot about the weird, but parallel, spheres of influence they both occupy - and the support bases that follow them.

Gibb the Evangelist

Let’s start with Gibb. Two weeks ago he spoke at a parliamentary reception in support of Parents and Teachers for Excellence (PTE), the supposedly grassroots organisation - heavily backed by Rachel De Souza of the Inspiration Trust - that aims to promote traditional pedagogy and curriculum in schools.

Although backed by just about anyone who is anyone in the new educational establishment, from De Souza herself to of the New School Network’s boss Toby Young, PTE’s people portray themselves as the outsiders taking on The Blob, Michael Gove’s name for education’s old, progressive, ruling classes. And that is very much how Gibb sees himself: the Evangelist battling the overwhelming forces of the disbelievers.

This, despite holding most of the levers of power, and having successfully forced through the biggest set of changes to curriculum and assessment - not forgetting the phonics check and the coming times tables test - in a generation.

Greening the Pragmatist

Contrast this with Greening, who is going out of her way to work with many other members or the Old Blob including, perhaps importantly, the new Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Geoff Barton. She was even praised recently in a comment piece by Paul Whiteman, NAHT’s new boss.

This week she was the driving force behind a summit on flexible working in the teaching profession, which she co-hosted with Barton. This event was, according to reports, the very definition of “sensible”, and all about working up practical solutions to the recruitment crisis. 

Greening, who one suspects would be happy to be described as the Pragmatist, is also focussing her work on delivering the fantastically complicated National Funding Formula and making sense of governance in the increasingly controversial multi-academy trust system.

Primarily, one gets the sense that Greening sees herself as working with the education sector. This is very different policy positioning to that of Gibb, or indeed Gove.

It’s never pleasant having two bosses - especially when they give you divergent messages. “Good cop, bad cop” can apparently work when you’re fictional policemen interrogating a Hollywood baddie, but it might not be the best way to run a school system.

Ed Dorrell is head of content at Tes. He tweets @Ed_Dorrell

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