Researchers have for some time been interested in the relationship between the strategy and structure of an organization. In this article the authors discuss the most widely‐held view on the nature of this relationship, and then suggest an alternative explanation. For them strategy, structure, and environment are closely linked. Whereas men may build the structure of an organization, in practice it is this very structure which later constrains the strategic choices they may make.

This article examines the dramatic implications of the turn towards neo-liberal education policies for teachers’ professional identities. It begins with an analysis of some of the key features of this policy shift including marketization, metricization and managerialism and the accompanying elevation of performativity. This is followed by a discussion of the implications of this turn for teachers in which a new professionalism of increasing regulation and restrictions upon practice in a policy environment dominated by neo-liberalism act to restrict and confine professional identity formation and development. Drawing upon data collected within English schools the article explores how teachers have responded to this new policy environment in ways that are sensitive to how neo-liberal policy has been re-contextualized and re-translated in different educational settings. This reveals both the power of this New Right inspired permanent revolution of educational change in English schools and the complexities of how it has been variously embraced, accommodated and resisted by teachers. The article concludes with a discussion that explores the meaning of resistance in the context of what are identified as restricted teacher professional identities where affordances for professional practices lying outside of neo-liberal subjectivities have been dramatically reduced.

This article examines the spread of new public management (NPM) across European education\ud systems as it has traversed national boundaries. While recognising the transnational dimensions\ud of the spread of NPM, the authors offer new insights into the importance of national contexts in\ud mediating this development in educational settings by focusing upon NPM within three European\ud countries (England, Italy and Norway). We reveal its recontextualisation in these sites and the\ud interplay between NPM, and local and national conditions. This analysis is underpinned by a theoretical framework that seeks to capture the relationship between education and the state\ud and to reveal tensions produced by NPM both as a shaping force and an entity shaped by local\ud conditions in these contexts. The article concludes by focusing upon the complexities and\ud specificities of NPM recontextualisation in the three countries as a basis for a reflection upon\ud possible future policy trajectories

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The role and contribution of consultants and consultancy in public services has grown rapidly and the power of consultants suggests the emergence of a 'consultocracy'. We draw on research evidence from the social sciences and critical education policy (CEP) studies to present an examination of the state of the field. We deploy a framework that examines functional, critical and socially critical research and theorising, and we identify the emerging interest in CEP studies. In particular, we identify the potential for consultocracy but acknowledge that there is a need for more detailed research where we argue for more attention to be given to the political sciences in theorising knowledge exchange processes.