School Autonomy and Government Control

Abstract

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government elected in 2010 has argued contemporary reform will increase the autonomy of schools in England. Given the complexities that exist, however, in the balance between autonomy and control, we explore how school leaders view autonomy as it exists within the wider policy framework. The article develops, first, a historical and analytical perspective on school autonomy. Second, it analyses a survey of almost 2000 school leaders, as well as case study data, to explore their views on autonomy, accountability, external support and managing change. Third, it considers the implications. Drawing on Simkins's concepts of operational and criteria power, school leaders are shown to commonly anticipate greater power over aspects of school management but not over the aims and purposes of schooling. A significant variation is also found between school leaders in their perceived capacity and freedom to act. This leads to a proposed typology of confident, cautious, concerned and constrained schools. A key implication, we conclude, is that increasing operational power for schools, declining Local Authority support and differentiated school autonomy have a very real potential to exacerbate existing local hierarchies between schools.

School-to-school support within a competitive education system: views from the inside

“…First, it is clear that local and regional school systems have been responding to recent structural reforms and policy shifts in localised and context-specific ways. Second, it is evident that there is a strong appetite across the school system for collaboration and partnership working amongst school stakeholders and an understanding of the potential for sharing knowledge, intelligence, and resources as a means of improvement (Gilbert, 2017;Higham & Earley, 2013). Finally, it is clear from the evidence base that school-to-school collaboration is not necessarily a simple strategy that will guarantee progress.…”

“…Although this is the case in some contexts, there are other areas where such clarity or purpose is absent and tensions have arisen as stakeholders jostle for space and influence. This relates to a large-scale survey of school leaders undertaken by Higham and Earley (2013). Amongst their findings was a lack of clarity and a concern amongst head teachers in England as to whether the "patchwork of provision" that has stemmed from the structural reforms "would provide adequate and equitable support" (p. 714) for the schools within the system going forward.…”

Comparative leadership: pathways, scope and values in DRC-English 'urban' schools

“…In the interest of distributing school leadership, the financial issues have been handed to school business managers (Woods, 2009). Higham et al (2015) draw attention to three accelerated development programmes to headship (fast trackers, young heads and career changers) that, according to the authors, did not display a distinct style of leadership but nevertheless placed a focus on impacting change in classrooms, among other things. The impact of school leadership in classrooms cannot be overstated given growing disparities in achievement, especially in urban areas (Ofsted, 2013).…”

“…While new pathways to headship have been introduced (Higham et al, 2015) to deal with the shortage in the English context (Howson & Sprigade, 2010;MacBeath, 2011), it is not clear how current approaches satisfy the need to explore these heads' professional identities, hopes and expectations, which could have a significant impact on how leadership is practised. Although the data, as shown above, attests to a combination of on-the-job learning and a continued requirement for theory and practice, as part of the conditions for selecting heads at the local level, it is unclear how such training adequately reflects on the issues raised 123 above and those that relate to scope and leadership values, as shall be discussed later.…”

“…Despite these demands that might put some off considering headship (Higham et al, 2015), what seems to emerge from these experiences is the head teachers' resolve to find solutions, which, arguably, have defined them as leaders. Donald, for example, recalled his resolve to carve out his own leadership approach, after becoming aware of the policy-oriented versus people-oriented extreme practices as follows:…”