The Expansion of “Private” Schools in England, Sweden and Eastern Germany: A Comparative Perspective on Policy Development, Regulation, Policy Goals and Ideas

West, Anne; Nikolai, Rita

doi:10.1080/13876988.2016.1262549

Cited by 11 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The adoption of PSPS can be motivated by a wide range of rationales and objectives. As highlighted by West and Nikolai (2017), educational authorities can pursue very different policy goals and objectives when adopting PSPS. The authors note that, while certain education systems have adopted them as a means of promoting competition and other market dynamics, others use PSPS to support freedom of instruction, promote pedagogic diversification or achieve educational expansion.…”

Section: Analysing Psps From a Policy Instruments Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

The instrumentation of public subsidies for private schools: Different regulatory models with concurrent equity implications

Zancajo

Verger²,

Fontdevila

2021

European Educational Research Journal

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The availability of public funding for private schools, in both primary and secondary education, has become a common feature in a number of OECD countries. The expansion of public subsidies for privately owned schools has consequences that go far beyond the involvement of private actors in the provision of education. These include deepening forms of regulatory governance in educational systems and the blurring of frontiers between public and private education. Public subsidies for privately owned schools have been adopted following diverse rationalities and in pursuit of different goals. In light of the diversity, this research examines the regulatory configurations of private subsidized education provision across OECD countries, from a policy instruments’ perspective. Based on a systematic review of the literature, the article identifies four models of regulation of private subsidized education, and analyses why and how these models have been problematized and have evolved accordingly. The paper pays particular attention to recent educational reforms adopted, in most cases, to tackle the equity challenges posed by publicly subsidized private provision. Finally, the paper elaborates on the implications that this form of provision has for public education and the achievement of equity goals, and reflects on the potential and limits of regulatory reforms when confronting these issues.

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Section: Analysing Psps From a Policy Instruments Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

The instrumentation of public subsidies for private schools: Different regulatory models with concurrent equity implications

Zancajo

Verger²,

Fontdevila

2021

European Educational Research Journal

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“…Under the new School Act the autonomy of free schools was reigned in as they were pulled under the same legislative and curricular framework as state-run schools; in addition municipalities were given the power to veto the establishment of independent schools if it was deemed they would have negative consequences on the running of locally existing schools (West & Nikolai 2017). These…”

Section: Education Reforms Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The paper makes several contributions to current debates on education policy, and on policy reform more broadly: whereas recent education research has paid particular attention to global trends, such as marketisation and new assessment regimes (see e.g. Daun 2007;Ball 2007;Lundahl et al 2013;West & Nikolai 2017;Ozga & Lawn 2014;Rönnberg 2017), our focus on the scalar reorganisation of education governance in Sweden and England helps identify nation-specific differences in policy trajectories that tend to be overlooked (but see Hudson 2007;Hudson & Lidström 2002). Secondly, by linking the 'scalecraft' concept with a perspective on 'statecraft', we suggest a more extensive analytical scenario that links education reform to broader questions about the restructuring of mature welfare states and the reconfiguration of their scalar architectures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rescaling education policy: central–local relations and the politics of scale in England and Sweden

Naumann

Crouch

2020

Policy &Amp; Politics

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Governments worldwide have sought to introduce greater choice and competition as mechanisms to improve the quality of education provision and outcomes. However, there is considerable cross-national variation in education policy, particularly regarding the role of local government. To explain such differences, this article focuses on recent reforms in compulsory education in England and Sweden. It shows that although governments in both countries have advocated choice, competition and participation, education reform has led to the centralisation of school governance in England but decentralisation in Sweden. Drawing on the concept of ‘scalecraft’ as a specific form of ‘statecraft’, it argues that these differences in the rescaling of education policy reflect different conceptions of central–local relations and the role of local government. More broadly, the article shows how national governments strategically use scalar reorganisation (scalecraft) to support broader political goals (statecraft), contributing to a better understanding of the spatial dimensions of public policy reform.

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“…Assuming the continuation of academy type entities, a further possibility would be to standardise by statute the contractual arrangements, rather than the existing multiplicity of different contracts, to ensure coherence across the system. In Sweden, for example, where a significant proportion of schools are run by private bodies and funded by the state, all licences (contracts) are broadly similar: older licences are transferred in line with changes in legislation which also means that an operator is unable to invoke the wording or the terms of an old licence (see West and Nikolai, 2017).…”

Section: Legal and Policy Optionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This paper adds to the growing body of literature on academies. Recent research has focused on a range of issues including legislation and policy development (e.g., Glatter, 2018;Walford, 2014;West and Nikolai, 2017;Wolfe, 2013), academies' socio-economic composition and pupil outcomes (e.g., Allen and Higham, 2018;Gorard, 2014;Morris, 2015). Our interest is in the impact that the academies policy has had on the English school system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academies, autonomy, equality and democratic accountability: Reforming the fragmented publicly funded school system in England

West¹,

Wolfe²

2019

London Review of Education

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This article focuses on the transformative academies policy in England. Based on an analysis of documentary evidence, we argue that the policy has resulted in the fragmentation of the state-funded school system and stark variation between academies, with those within multi-academy trusts (MATs) having no legal identity. We examine the variation between funding agreements, the control by central government, the role of MATs and the governance of academies. We propose policy options to improve the current incoherent and fragmented set of provisions, including restoring the legal identity of schools in MATs and allowing academies if they so wish, to convert to maintained schools.

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The Expansion of “Private” Schools in England, Sweden and Eastern Germany: A Comparative Perspective on Policy Development, Regulation, Policy Goals and Ideas

Abstract: The expansion of "private" schools in England (academies/free schools), Sweden (friskolor) and Eastern Germany (Freie Schulen): A comparative perspective on policy development, regulation, policy goals and ideas

Cited by 11 publications

References 37 publications

The instrumentation of public subsidies for private schools: Different regulatory models with concurrent equity implications

The instrumentation of public subsidies for private schools: Different regulatory models with concurrent equity implications

Rescaling education policy: central–local relations and the politics of scale in England and Sweden

Academies, autonomy, equality and democratic accountability: Reforming the fragmented publicly funded school system in England

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