Education Policy and Realist Social Theory: Primary Teachers, Child-centred Philosophy and the New Managerialism (Routledge studies in critical realism ; 3)

In Europe welfare state provision has been subjected to 'market forces'. Over the last two decades, the framework of economic competitiveness has become the defining aim of education, to be achieved by new managerialist techniques and mechanisms. This book thoughtfully and persuasively argues against this new vision of education, and offers a different, more useful potential approach. This in-depth major study will be of great interest to researchers in the sociology of education, education policy, social theory, organization and management studies, and also to professionals concerned about the deleterious impact of current education policy on children's learning and welfare. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Acknowledgements......Page 12 Introduction......Page 14 Establishing the theoretical framework......Page 18 Structure, agency and educational change: Morphogenesis and the need for analytical dualism......Page 20 Culture, organisation theory and the new managerialism......Page 53 Child-centred philosophy, new managerialism and the English education system: A morphogenetic account......Page 90 Socio-cultural conditioning: Plowden, the philosophers and teacher training......Page 92 Socio-cultural interaction: Tyndale, Ruskin and the 'Black Paper' years......Page 116 Socio-cultural elaboration: The 1988 Education Reform Act and the new managerialism......Page 132 At the managerial chalk face: Southside and Westside......Page 160 Preface to Part III......Page 162 Southside: New Managerialism to the rescue......Page 177 Westside: 'You can run, but you can't hide!'......Page 203 Concluding remarks......Page 232 What about the children? Some concluding remarks......Page 234 Notes......Page 240 References......Page 252 Index......Page 260 "Education Policy and Realist Social Theory" is a clear and accessible introduction to the morphogenetic approach in the sociology of education, and organization and management studies. Robert Willmott: establishes the theoretical framework that underpins historical and case-study research of child-centredness and new managerialism; argues that the interplay of structure, culture and agency can be theorized via the methodological device of analytical dualism; appraises the school effectiveness research; provides case study analysis of how teaching staffs in two primary schools mediate the contradiction between child-centred philosophy and practice and new managerialism; and discusses the implications of the findings for primary school practice and underscores the need for a critical realist approach to theorizing about education policy and practice Annotation In Europe welfare state provision has been subjected to 'market forces'. Over the last two decades, the framework of economic competitiveness has become the defining aim of education, to be achieved by new managerialist techniques and mechanisms. This book thoughtfully and persuasively argues against this new vision of education, and offers a different, more useful potential approach. This in-depth major study will be of great interest to researchers in the sociology of education, education policy, social theory, organization and management studies, and also to professionals concerned about the deleterious impact of current education policy on children's learning and welfare In Europe, welfare state provision has been subjected to "market forces". In the 1980s and 90s the framework of economic competitiveness has become the defining aim of education, to be achieved by new managerialist techniques and mechanisms. This book argues against this vision of education This in-depth study should be of interest to researchers in the sociology of education, education policy, social theory, organization and management studies, and also to professionals concerned about the deleterious impact of current education policy on children's learning and welfare As indicated in the introduction, the principal aim of this book is to theorise about the interplay of child-centred philosophy, (new) managerialism and teacher mediation via the morphogenetic approach. What contribution does realist social theory make to our understanding of education policy? Does the production line apply to our children's education?