A comparison of the governing of primary and secondary schools in England

James, Chris; Connolly, Michael; Brammer, Stephen; Fertig, Michael; James, Joseph F.; Jones, Jeff

doi:10.1080/13632434.2013.849680

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Finally, MATs may comprise different school types: primary; secondary; post-sixteen; and special or alternative provision (Greany and Higham, 2018;Simon et al, 2019). This issue is significant for governing practice in such diverse MATs, particularly as the governing of primary and secondary schools has been shown to be different (James et al, 2010;James, et al, 2014). Nonetheless, it was made clear in 2015 that the guidance on effective governance applied to all schools regardless of their status and the way they are funded (DfE, 2015).…”

Section: Schools In Englandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing and proposing rational and valid principles for effective school governance in England

Connolly¹,

James²

2022

Educational Management Administration & Leadership

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The rationale for the principles of effective school governance in England, as set out in government regulations, has never been made explicit. This article addresses that issue and develops and proposes such principles. We argue that effective school governance secures the legitimacy of schools as institutions. Such institutional legitimacy is achieved through the institutionalization processes in which the institutional primary task is central. Effective governance is therefore concerned with overseeing and ensuring the processes of institutionalization. We identify two general principles that relate to ensuring the school's legitimacy and ensuring that the school's institutionalization processes enable it to be a legitimate institution. We also distinguish six specific principles that relate to: the school's work on the institutional primary task, the resources required and deployed for work on the institutional primary task; the school's compliance with the rules and regulations that apply to the institution; the school's conformance to the norms expected of a school; the way the school operates on a day-to-day basis in relation to wider society's expectations; calling the headteacher or principal (HT/P) to account for the functioning of the school; and ensuring the HT/P's development. Our analysis is relevant to school governance in other countries.

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Section: Schools In Englandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing and proposing rational and valid principles for effective school governance in England

Connolly¹,

James²

2022

Educational Management Administration & Leadership

Self Cite

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“…These barriers may also be intensified in schools that find it difficult to get parents to serve as governors (see, for example, Ranson et al, 2005; Xaba & Nhlapo, 2014). In England, for example, James et al (2014) point out that recruiting post-primary school parent governors can be somewhat more difficult than in primary schools and suggest that it could be especially difficult in disadvantaged settings. This also appears to be the case in Ireland, where although board members can fill a variety of duties, there are also issues surrounding the capability of schools to form a board that has the capacity to carry out all the required duties of school boards.…”

Section: Resistance Objections and Drawbacks To Parent And Student Vo...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Parent and student voice in evaluation and planning in schools

et al. 2019

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Current approaches to the regulation of schools in most jurisdictions tend to combine elements of external inspection with systems of internal self-evaluation. An increasingly important aspect of the theory and practice of both, but particularly the latter, revolves around the role of other actors, primarily parents and students, in the process. Using literature review and documentary analysis as the research method, this article explores the research literature from many countries around the concerns of schools and teachers about giving a more powerful voice to parents and pupils. Then, focusing on Ireland, this article tries to clarify three things, official policy concerning stakeholder voice in school self-evaluation and decision making, the efforts by schools to implement this policy and the response to date of school leaders and teachers to this rather changed environment. Using Hart’s ladder of genuine, as opposed to token, participation, it is argued that policy mandating parental and student involvement has evolved significantly, that schools have responded positively and that there is little evidence, as yet, of teacher concern or resistance. This response is explained by the low stakes and improvement-focused education environment; the controlled, structured and simplified nature of the self-evaluation process; and the limited extent of parental and student participation in decision making.

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“…This lack of awareness might be because the boards of most academies are appointed (Honingh, Ruiter, & Thiel, 2018) rather than elected, meaning parents can be excluded from school decisionmaking, or because the governance of schools shift from being shared and decentralised to increasingly centralised and brokered by central staff as MATs grow (Ehren & Godfrey, 2017). Furthermore, it might also be because it can be more difficult to recruit secondary school parent governors than in primary schools, and especially in disadvantaged settings (James et al, 2014). Nonetheless, while the participants were unsure of the level of formal involvement parents had in academies, conversations did turn towards the platform that was given to parents to share their viewpoints:…”

Section: More Involvement For Parentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I think Irish schools need to keep doing what they’re doing’: Irish teachers’ views on school autonomy after working in English academies

Skerritt

2019

Improving Schools

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Despite a lack of conclusive evidence connecting autonomous schools and academic success, school autonomy is regularly championed as being a way of not only improving schools but as a way of improving the quality of education in socially and economically deprived areas. This research builds on a recent paper published in Irish Educational Studies that argues that school autonomy should not be advanced in Ireland by exploring how teachers feel about features of autonomous schools. Irish teachers who have previously worked in academy schools in England, and who now teach in disadvantaged schools in Ireland, were interviewed about their experiences and how they would feel about features of autonomous schools being implemented in Ireland. The experiences the participants had in England indicate how school autonomy can be experienced in different ways – morally proper ways that engage with the broad purposes of schooling such as focusing on students and their learning, and morally improper ways that prioritise looking good on external measures at the expense of students and their learning. Overall, the participants were opposed to schools in Ireland becoming more like English academies but felt that having greater local flexibility over the curriculum in schools and offering a wider range of subjects would be beneficial, provided that it was embraced and enacted in a morally proper manner.

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A comparison of the governing of primary and secondary schools in England

Cited by 5 publications

References 15 publications

Developing and proposing rational and valid principles for effective school governance in England

Developing and proposing rational and valid principles for effective school governance in England

Parent and student voice in evaluation and planning in schools

‘I think Irish schools need to keep doing what they’re doing’: Irish teachers’ views on school autonomy after working in English academies

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