The problem with autonomy: an ethnographic study of neoliberalism in practice at an Australian high school

Forsey, Martin

doi:10.1080/01596300903237222

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Now it's very much communicated, it's out there having to be adhered to…" While Leonie appeared to display many of the characteristics of transformational leadership, she also displayed transmissional leadership in that her directions and actions were in line with the overall IPS program and were supported by the Department of Education. Forsey (2009) has highlighted the adverse consequences of attempting transformational leadership in a system (in that instance in WA in the 1990s) that does not support such initiatives or does not support the particular version of transformation that a principal might choose to adopt.…”

Section: Market Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Devolution, market dynamics and the Independent Public School initiative in Western Australia: ‘winning back’ what has been lost?

Fitzgerald

Stacey

McGrath‐Champ

et al. 2017

Journal of Education Policy

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The devolution of public sector schooling systems has been a feature of education reform since the 1980s. In Western Australia, the Independent Public School (IPS) initiative has recently been installed, announced by the state government in 2009. Now over 80 percent of the state's public school students attend IP schools. Drawing on interview data from a broader study of devolution and the conditions of teachers' work, this article explores the cases of two schools -one IPS and one non-IPS. While both schools were ostensibly disadvantaged, they proved to be highly contrasting schooling sites, responding to the school marketplace in markedly different ways. We consider the ways in which the IPS initiative is contributing to the operation of market dynamics within the public school sector in WA, and argue that it has created new mechanisms for the residualisation of particular, and specifically non-IP, schools. Furthermore, while one school was apparently more of a 'winner' within the school marketplace, as it was attracting increasing student enrolments, we query what it might actually mean to 'win' in such a policy settlement, with staff at both schools reporting significant dissatisfaction in their work.

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Section: Market Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Devolution, market dynamics and the Independent Public School initiative in Western Australia: ‘winning back’ what has been lost?

Fitzgerald

Stacey

McGrath‐Champ

et al. 2017

Journal of Education Policy

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“…This study highlights that social justice is multi-layered in its occurrence, and that autonomy might help principals achieve local forms of social justice for their students, but (a) this does not mitigate inequity and injustice between schools, and (b) system-level expressions of social justice require a social cohesion (symbolically and materially) that is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain in a decentralised system. Forsey (2009) argued something similar after conducting an ethnographic study in Western Australia:‘The system’ provides and creates careers, fosters ambitions, promotes creative thought and offers teachers the structure and the space to work constructively both with students and with each other. This reality is conveniently ignored by many a politician when promoting local autonomy as a panacea for what they perceive to be the stultifying effects of big government on schooling.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competing locals in an autonomous schooling system: The fracturing of the ‘social’ in social justice

Holloway¹,

Keddie²

2019

Educational Management Administration & Leadership

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This paper troubles notions of ‘social justice’ as being compromised and fractured by the autonomous school agenda. Drawing on interviews with 13 autonomous school principals in Australia, it demonstrates how the devolution of schooling simultaneously rips the seams of the ‘social’ fabric that makes collective justice possible. The stories of these principals signal a fracturing of the social cohesion that is necessary for creating a just and equal society. We aim to distinguish between individual efforts to create socially just conditions at the local level versus collective projects to create socially just conditions at the system level. We argue that, on the one hand, school autonomy affords individual principals opportunities to exercise what might be considered socially just discretion; on the other hand, this sometimes occurs at the expense of fracturing the cohesion of the greater public education system. In doing so, we challenge the extent to which social justice can be realised within a decentralised schooling system.

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“…Forsey (2009) observes that the "pragmatic realities of running an education system, which in the case of Western Australian caters to a diverse population spread unevenly across an enormous expanse of land, makes it difficult to realize an unswerving commitment to decentralization" (2009, p. 459). Both officials acknowledge this difficulty when they discuss the remote and regional nature of the education system.…”

Section: Neoliberalism Autonomy and Contractualizationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Putting “the system” into a school autonomy reform: the case of the Independent Public Schools program

Gobby

2014

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education

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The Australian Federal and state governments have been introducing neoliberal reforms to the governance of their education systems for a number of decades. One of the most recent programs of reform is the Western Australian Independent Public Schools (IPS) initiative. Similar to decentralizing reforms around the world, the IPS program seeks greater school autonomy from the state education bureaucracy by providing selected principals and school communities with a range of responsibilities. This paper seeks to better understand the kind of post-welfare form of government IPS enacts. Using concepts from the governmentality literature, this paper analyses documents related to the program, and interview data collected from key government officials responsible for the initiative. It finds that while IPS renders operable a neoliberal critique of the public sector by implementing the processes of contractualization, it also diverges from the ideal schema of neoliberalism. Analysis reveals that a number of strategic, pragmatic and political concerns have resulted in what some may view as a contradictory rationality of "the system" being instituted as a key element in this autonomizing reform. The paper calls for attention to the actual operationalizing of neoliberal reform projects to gain a nuanced understanding of modern regimes of rule.

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The problem with autonomy: an ethnographic study of neoliberalism in practice at an Australian high school

Cited by 11 publications

References 19 publications

Devolution, market dynamics and the Independent Public School initiative in Western Australia: ‘winning back’ what has been lost?

Devolution, market dynamics and the Independent Public School initiative in Western Australia: ‘winning back’ what has been lost?

Competing locals in an autonomous schooling system: The fracturing of the ‘social’ in social justice

Putting “the system” into a school autonomy reform: the case of the Independent Public Schools program

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