Decentralisation and School-Based Management in Thailand

Gamage, David; Sooksomchitra, Pacharapimon

doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-3358-2_8

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…A similar, though less richly documented trend is also evident in the emergent school leadership literature in East Asia (Dimmock and Walker, 2005; Gamage and Sooksomchitra, 2006; Hallinger, 2004; Hallinger and Kantamara, 2001; Ryabova, 2010; Truong and Hallinger, 2015; Walker and Dimmock, 2002; Walker and Hallinger, 2015). For example, Dimmock and Walker (2005) found that teachers in Hong Kong and Singapore were reluctant to be involved in decision making.…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectivementioning

confidence: 63%

“…These findings also lead us to ask why policymakers in Vietnam, and indeed much of East Asia, have been prompted to adopt reforms aimed at decentralized decision making and teacher empowerment despite their apparent conflict with local policies, values and traditions (Dimmock and Walker, 2005; Gamage and Sooksomchitra, 2006; Hallinger, 2004, 2010; Hallinger and Truong, 2014; Hallinger et al, 2015; Law, 2004). We suggest that a need to conform to globally disseminated education policies ‘requires’ policymakers throughout the world to adopt policies which ensure that their education systems ‘look like modern education systems’ (Hallinger, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Confucian values and school leadership in Vietnam

Truong¹,

Hallinger²,

Sanga³

2016

Educational Management Administration & Leadership

146

117

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There is an emerging global consensus that the knowledge base in educational leadership and management must offer a deeper examination of leadership practice across a more diverse set of national contexts. Nonetheless, a recent review of the literature in this field concluded that this challenge has yet to be adequately addressed with respect to research in Asia. This study was an in-depth, qualitative examination of how the decision-making practices of Vietnamese school principals respond to their socio-cultural context. The study employed Hofstede’s ‘dimensions of national culture’ to aid in this analysis of Vietnamese school leadership. Qualitative data were used to construct case studies of principal decision-making in three Vietnamese schools. The findings highlight the strong influence of power distance and collectivism on the decision making of Vietnamese school principals. The results illuminate the value of adopting an ‘indigenous perspective’ on school leadership. Our description of how socio-cultural values shape the practice of school leadership in Vietnam offers a useful contrast with descriptions from mainstream research on educational leadership and management.

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Section: Theoretical Perspectivementioning

confidence: 63%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Confucian values and school leadership in Vietnam

Truong¹,

Hallinger²,

Sanga³

2016

Educational Management Administration & Leadership

146

117

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“…However, much evidence from actual decentralisation processes suggests that a range of more formidable barriers exist. Several of the most prevalent issues include: management problems and lack of local-level administrative know-how and innovation (Gamage and Sooksomchitra 2004;Tracy 1997); conflict among school stakeholders (De Grauwe 2005); legal and political issues (Therkildsen 2000); reduced potential for innovation due to risk aversion in communities (Chapman et al 2002); and financing issues where community-financing structures led to lack of transparency (De Grauwe 2005) or systemic inequities and community resentment (Bray 1996). Another line of criticism centres around social equity issues such as: the exclusion of traditionally marginalised groups via social or economic mechanisms (Cuéllar-Marchelli 2003; Geo-Jaja 2004; Wankhede and Sengupta 2005); and management structures that maintain traditional hierarchies (Bray 1996) or even allow existing elite groups to further expand their power (De Grauwe 2005).…”

Section: Research On Education Decentralisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disconnect and capture of education decentralisation reforms in Nepal: implications for community involvement in schooling

Edwards

2011

Globalisation, Societies and Education

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This article argues that processes of disconnect and capture have affected Nepal's efforts to decentralise its education system, leading to a failure to engage the very stakeholders Á parents and communities Á that the reforms sought to reach. Specifically, disconnect occurred in the development and implementation of the latest 'decentralisation' reforms because they were formulated via a highly centralised policy-making process and then implemented from the top down. As a result, they had little impact on community-level school leadership or ownership, and led to a continued exclusion of the very community-level stakeholders that the reforms sought to engage. Furthermore, the policy reforms have also led to an increased central legitimisation and empowerment of school management committees, which in turn has facilitated the capture and politicisation of these bodies by locally established leaders who are often not motivated to engage parents and community members in school reform. While these processes are not necessarily new phenomena to Nepal, they illustrate the extent to which globalised policy agendas have been ineffective in engaging community-level stakeholders. IntroductionDecentralisation of public education management, from central to local, community or even school levels, is often viewed as a panacea to the problems faced by struggling education systems. It is commonly argued that localised school management results in increased efficiency, greater accountability and equity, and more democratic decisionmaking processes; all outcomes that also conveniently align with prevalent discourses in the international development sector. For these reasons, educational decentralising measures and the notion of 'school-based management' have been widely implemented in recent decades in diverse contexts across the globe. But what happens when policy-makers attempt to operationalise these powerful global discourses at the most local of levels? As with many such reforms, results may be quite different from those that are planned. This article explores the ways that globalised discourses around education decentralisation are mediated by contact with local societies, in particular the actual sites of policy implementation: schools and communities. How do endogenous social orders interact with and transform the discourses typically associated with modernity and development? And how do these dynamics shape the relationship between decentralisation policy and practice? I propose a two-part

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“…The ESAs are accountable to the ministry of education, which carries out a thorough evaluation of each ESA at the year-end (UNESCO-IBE, n.d.). The ESAs perform a range of important functions, such as supervision of schools, hiring and training of staff, specifying syllabus, allocation of funds, and evaluation (Gamage & Sooksomchitra, 2004).…”

Section: Global Examples Of Local-level Dedicated Institutional Strucmentioning

confidence: 99%

Business as Usual: District Education Authorities in Punjab

Rana

2017

Asian Journal of Management Cases

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The recently established District Education Authorities (DEAs) are expected to improve governance of government schools in Punjab by decentralizing authority to local stakeholders. Presumably, grassroots-level elected representatives will oversee the performance of schools more effectively than has been the case so far. However, a critical assessment shows DEAs to be largely irrelevant to improving governance and quality of education in government schools. DEAs place all hope of improving education delivery solely on better supervision of the existing human, physical, and financial resources. Even if this were possible – and this is a big if – it is unclear as to how the DEAs will take teaching to new heights from its present low or how the DEAs will produce the money they will need for the various necessary improvements at the schools. There seems to be little forward thinking accompanying the establishment of the DEAs on how to respond to key issues, such as improving the teaching effort, generating resources for expansion and improvement of the school infrastructure, and targeting out-of-school children. The DEAs are expected to somewhat rearrange, but not disturb, business as usual on the educational landscape in Punjab.

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Decentralisation and School-Based Management in Thailand

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Confucian values and school leadership in Vietnam

Confucian values and school leadership in Vietnam

Disconnect and capture of education decentralisation reforms in Nepal: implications for community involvement in schooling

Business as Usual: District Education Authorities in Punjab

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