What is governance? Projects, objects and analytics in education (original) (raw)
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Education governance and social theory: Interdisciplinary approaches to research
Bloomsbury, 2018
To cite: Wilkins, A. and Olmedo, A. (eds). 2018. Education governance and social theory: Interdisciplinary approaches to research. Bloomsbury: London Available to buy in paperback: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/education-governance-and-social-theory-9781350159723/ The study of 'education governance' is a significant area of research in the twenty-first century concerned with the changing organisation of education systems, relations and processes against the background of wider political and economic developments occurring nationally and globally. In Education Governance and Social Theory these important issues are critically examined through a range of innovative theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to assist in guiding those interested in better understanding and engaging with education governance as an object of critical inquiry and a tool or method of research. With contributions from an international line-up of academics, the book judiciously combines theory and methodologies with case study material taken from diverse geo-political settings to help frame and enrich our understanding of education governance. This is a theoretically and empirically rich resource for those who wish to research education governance and its multifarious operations, conditions and effects, but are not sure how to do so. It will therefore appeal to readers who have a strong interest in the practical application of social theory to making sense of the complex changes underway in education across the globe.
Foreword to Education Governance and Social Theory: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Research
This Foreword to Andew Wilkins' and Antonio Olmedo's edited collection Education Governance and Social Theory discusses the contemporary crises of democratic governance inside and outside of educational institutions. It discusses a number of reasons why theory matters to education governance. It also elaborates on the relationship between political, economic, and cultural crises of democracy and anti-theoretical and positivist trends. The piece launches the author's discussion of a new theory he terms "the alienation of fact" that contributes to comprehending why the contemporary imperative for radical empiricism (data driven everything) can coincide with the current abdication of evidence, argument, and truth for social policy and governance (Evidence against privatization? Expand privatization). The alienation of fact replaces reason with faith, particularly in markets and is related to both the rise of conspiracy and the individualizing of politics through the registers of the body and numbers.
Journal of Educational Thought, 2022
Just like that ancient riddle about who came first between the egg and the chicken, researchers interested in educational policy and educational governance keep arguing whether educational policies guide institutional governance or institutional governance controls educational policy formation, implementation, and reform. Although there is consensus about the interconnectedness between the two, controversies about their roles in each other’s establishment and functioning continue to surface in literature on the topics and researchers remain interested in investigating the nexus between them. However, there is still confusion about what to consider when performing an educational policy-governance analysis. This paper discusses the relationship between educational policy and educational governance, and the debates surrounding their influence on each other. The findings of our literature review reveal that whether it is educational policy or governance, they can be categorized into three levels (top-down, bottom-up and middle-out) in terms of planning, implementation and review. Although traditional educational policy-governance analysis that usually focuses on one of the three levels may help understand each level separately, this paper proposes a holistic educational policy-governance approach (HEPGA) that can be useful in considering the complexity, interconnectedness and collectivism that characterize contemporary educational policy-governance practices. Tout comme l’ancienne énigme sur ce qui est venu en premier entre l’oeuf et la poule, les chercheurs intéressés par la politique et la gouvernance éducatives continuent de se demander si les politiques éducatives guident la gouvernance institutionnelle ou si la gouvernance institutionnelle contrôle la formation, la mise en oeuvre et la réforme des politiques éducatives. Bien qu’il existe un consensus sur l’interdépendance entre les deux, les discussions sur leurs rôles font surface et les chercheurs continuent à étudier le lien entre eux. Cependant, il existe une certaine confusion quant à ce qu’il faut prendre en compte lors de la réalisation d’une analyse de la gouvernance des politiques éducatives. Cet article examine la relation entre la politique éducative et la gouvernance de l’éducation, et les débats entourant leur influence réciproque. Les conclusions de la revue de la littérature révèlent que, qu’il s’agisse de politique éducative ou de gouvernance, elles peuvent être classées en trois niveaux (descendant, ascendant et intermédiaire) en matière de planification, de mise en oeuvre et de révision. Bien que l’analyse traditionnelle de la gouvernance des politiques éducatives qui se concentre généralement sur l’un des trois niveaux puisse aider à comprendre chaque niveau séparément, cet article propose une approche holistique de la gouvernance des politiques éducatives (HEPGA) qui peut être utile afin de tenir compte de la complexité, de l’interdépendance et du collectivisme qui caractérisent les pratiques contemporaines en matière de politique et de gouvernance de l’éducation.
Innovative Orthodoxies and Old Bedfellows -Re(drawing) the Geometries of Education Governance
The Global Educational Policy Environment in the Fourth Industrial Revolution , 2016
This chapter presents a very broad synopsis of the intensification of education governance. It opens by narrating the multifaceted nature of governance and in what way it has developed as the axiom for professed policy problems that national educational systems are experiencing. The chapter chronicles the amplification of education governance and it explicates the metamorphosis and myriad typographies that “governance” has taken in responding to perceived endogenous and exogenous policy problems. It explains how managerialism and neo-corporate reforms sought to destabilize the activities of education governance and the results. In making this argument, it suggests that new public management policy prescriptions in education were part of the earliest form of disruptive innovation in education. It advances that educational managerialism, in hollowing out national educational systems, has generated the perfect breeding ground for the rise of newer modus operandi (or modes, styles, and arrangements) that governs and regulates education systems through the use of different techniques and mechanisms. The second half of the chapter discusses five different modus operandi that are inchoate in the post-managerialist era and highlights that in education, we have progressed beyond the movement from government to governance across national education systems and these systems are now employing additional modes of governance (vertical and horizontal) across different scales. The chapter concludes by drawing on the concept of a “Wicked Problem” (an unsolvable or difficult problematic, that is, fluid, paradoxical, and unfinished) to insinuate that education governance is an example of a wicked problem that has been and continues to be shaped by the ideological contours of endogenous and exogenous policy influences.
School governance and neoliberal political rationality: what has democracy got to do with it?
In this paper I discuss the role of school governance in England with a particular focus on the changing responsibilities of school governors in relation to recent education policy. These issues are located through a much broader discussion of neoliberalism and its effects on public sector organisation. Here neoliberalism is defined as the incursion of market forces on public sector organisation, including the introduction of new regulatory tools (inspection, standardisation and accountabilities for example) to replace direct bureaucracy and state intervention and indirectly strengthen government control – what Bob Jessop calls ‘regulated self-regulation’. Drawing on these insights, I demonstrate how a neoliberal political rationality shapes school governance and the kinds of behaviour and orientations idealised and adopted by school governors seeking to make themselves and the schools they govern accountable. Finally, I show how school governance is wedded to mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion (a preference for ‘professionals’ over ‘amateurs’ or unskilled volunteers for example) as well as claims to expertise and specialist knowledge. This raises questions over who gets to influence school governance and what governance is for, as well as bringing into focus larger questions about the role of democratic principles of civic empowerment, participation and representation.
Educational Governance and Democratic Practice
Educational Policy, 2001
A preoccupation with academic quality has guided contemporary education reforms in the United States. This is hardly surprising, because political and business elites recognize that well-trained,high-skilled workers are crucial for regional competitiveness. Many parents have also come to see academic credentials as vital to their children’s future well-being; they have thus sought more control over their children’s schooling. As these changes have been occurring, others have voiced concerns about the state of civic engagement and democratic practice. With questions emerging over how public policies might promote democracy, the democratic function of public schooling has received renewed scrutiny.However, as yet, no effort has been made to explore the commensurability between reform efforts motivated by quality and accountability concerns and the growing discussion of education for democracy. This article begins that task, indicating where trade-offs must be made between goals and where goals could be advanced in mutually supporting ways.