Market logic at school: Emerging intra-school competition between private and public STEM programmes in Israel

Abstract

This study analyses the de facto emerging intra-school competition between the Israeli Ministry of Education (MOE) and external organisations at public Israeli secondary schools by exploring science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programmes. Given on-going privatisation processes within the education system, the participation of external organisations in schools has become significant, greatly affecting municipalities’ authority and schools principals’ autonomy. This case-study provides a comprehensive examination of this new form of intra-school competition and its possible impact on schools, based on in-depth interviews with school principals, representatives of STEM programmes, and officials at the MOE and a local education authority, as well as analysis of supporting documents. We show that despite its supposed regulatory role, the MOE is pushed to function as an additional player in this quasi-market, competing with external organisations and substituting its regulatory roles for additional market-player opportunities. Theoretical and empirical implications are suggested.

A model for principals' STEM leadership capability

“…Willingness to be personally and actively involved in establishing and sustaining the school STEM teaching and learning programmes Kaptzon and Yemini (2018) argued that effective school change is more likely when principals take a prominent role in the management of school STEM programmes. This finding is consistent with that of Smetana et al (2016), that science teachers become more autonomous in their work when principals take an active role in decisions about curriculum and pedagogy because this instils a sense of value and trust in their work.…”

The role of non-state providers in informal science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education: a Malaysian perspective

“…The literature on non-state providers in education has so far focused on formal and non-formal modes of education. With the exception of Kaptzon & Yemini's (2018) recent case study of STEM programmes delivered by an NGO within Israeli public schools in competition with the state, there is a dearth of research into the nature of non-state providers' involvement in informal education. Therefore, our study intends to expand the scholarship at this intersection with the state as the dominant provider of formal education through the MOE, focusing specifically on the perspectives of various non-state providers of informal STEM education in the Malaysian context.…”

Análisis Político de Discurso: Herramientas conceptuales y analíticas para el estudio crítico de políticas educativas en tiempos de reforma global

“…Este nuevo régimen de políticas educativas ha emergido en 1980 en Inglaterra, Estados Unidos y Chile, a propósito de las respuestas de la Nueva Derecha y su laboratorio ideológico a la crisis del modelo keynesiano (Harvey, 2007(Harvey, , 2015, y a su apuesta por la creación de un orden de libre mercado que opere como mecanismo regulador de la vida social (Fuller & Stevenson, 2019;Kaptzon & Yemini, 2018). El proceso de diseminación, transferencia y recontextualización de estas ideas globales en escenarios nacionales específicos ha recibido el nombre de Movimiento Global de Reforma Educativa, o GERM por sus siglas en inglés.…”