1st Edition

A Socially Critical View Of The Self-Managing School

Edited By John Smyth Copyright 1993
    268 Pages
    by Routledge

    268 Pages
    by Routledge

    The shift from the model of central government educational control to school- based management has been widely adopted and acclaimed and has created the general impression of increased democracy and participation.; The international contributors to this book tackle this important policy issue and look behind the scenes of the moves towards school self- management. They investigate the phenomenon of the self-managing school, Why It Is Happening Now, What Is The Truth Behind This Notion And The problems which lie behind devolution and self-management.; The self- managing school, it is claimed is not about "grassroots democracy" or "parent participation" but absolutely the reverse and this contradiction is best understood in terms of the ideology of the New Right. Enlightened and informed perspectives of the reality behind school self-management suggest that the devolution of power is only superficial. Hierarchies continue to exist as unequally funded schools which perpetuate class, gender and ethnic divisions. The mechanism involved promotes the Survivial Of The Fittest Through Notions Of Choice.; For Those Involved in school management and education generally, this book should provide a useful insight into the struggle surrounding the control of schooling.

    The New Right and the self-managing school, Jack Demaine; paradigm shifts and site-based management in the United States - toward a paradigm of social empowerment, Gary L. Anderson and Alexandra Dixon; reinventing square wheels - planning for schools to ignore realities, Marie Brennan; the evaluative state and self-management in education - cause for reflection?, David Hartley; pushing crisis and stress down the line - the self-managing school, Peter Watkins; teaching cultures and school-based management - towards a collaborative reconstruction, Andrew C. Sparkes and Martin Bloomer; managerialism and market forces in vocational education - Balkanizing education in the Banana Republic, Peter Kell; self-managing schools, choice and equity, Geoffrey Walford.

    Biography

    Smyth, John