The following text is a "narrative inquiry" (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000) in which I present an account of my experiences as an English teacher working in an Australian public secondary school. I explore the ways in which my beliefs as an English teacher conflicted with my role as a Literacy Co-ordinator/teacher and how--even though I may have consciously questioned and resisted performing certain ideological work, such as administering standardised tests and sorting students into remedial groups--there was still a sense in which government policies mediated my professional practice, transforming it into something with which I remained deeply at odds. My aim is not just to provide an empirical account of how students and teachers experienced these literacy initiatives, but to capture the dominant ideology that is shaping education at the current moment. I do this by examining the Victorian government school publication, "Education Times," specifically to demonstrate how the rhetoric of this official publication shaped my professional practices and knowledge as an English teacher. Through this narrative I interrogate taken-for-granted understandings about what counts as "knowledge" in an age of increasing accountability.