Education Policy, Neoliberalism, and Leadership Practice

What future for school business leadership? Recent change and looming possibilities

“…To arrive at its discussion and conclusions, this chapter is informed by and draws from many previous education leadership and policy research projects and publications (Starr, 2008(Starr, , 2012a(Starr, , 2012b(Starr, , 2014(Starr, , 2015(Starr, , 2017a(Starr, , 2017b(Starr, , 2018(Starr, , 2019 and (b)). Findings from Australia, USA, UK, Canada and New Zealand are summarised to chronicle what has happened and what is happening on a broad scale in school business leadership.…”

“…Major recent shifts in school business can be traced to pervasive provocations in education policy that have fundamentally changed education's purposes, practices and priorities (see for example, Apple et al, 2005;Starr, 2019;Ball, 2019;Whitty et al, 1997). Over the past three decades, globalised free market and neoliberalism has irrevocably changed education, its leadership and administration through economic structural reforms at international, national and local levels (see for example, Ball, 2016;Gleeson and O Donnabhain, 2009).…”

“…Over the past three decades, globalised free market and neoliberalism has irrevocably changed education, its leadership and administration through economic structural reforms at international, national and local levels (see for example, Ball, 2016;Gleeson and O Donnabhain, 2009). Dominant discourses and the philosophical, organisational, and economic bases of the public sector and its agencies have been reconfigured fundamentally along market lines, transforming the nature and scope of government and reforming government policy and procedure in line with free market and neo-liberal axioms (for an extensive explanation and critical analysis see Starr, 2019;Ball, 2014Ball, , 2018Marginson, 1997;Rizvi and Lingard, 2000).…”

“…The values currently underpinning education policy, therefore, support global free market liberalism with a focus on individualism, autonomy, competition, privatisation, choice, efficiency, productivity, improvement, innovation, entrepreneurialism and emphasising accountability and performativity. These neoliberal tenets are inherent in reforms impacting directly on school business and its leadership (Starr, 2019). Some major influences on school business are described below.…”

“…A global neoliberal policy hegemony has heralded broadsweeping changes in education policy and practice to complement market values, incurring policy similarities across nations (Starr, 2019;Ball, 2014Ball, , 2018Rizvi and Lingard, 2000;Whitty et al, 1997). One effect is that education authorities across the developed world are increasingly aware of the need for competent, efficient school business leadership and management in the context of increasing school autonomy, institutional accountability and rising expectations for higher student achievement outcomes.…”