Governance and knowledge transformations in educational administration: Greek responses to global policies

Abstract

This article explores the localisation of the global and European discourse of educational governance in the Greek education system through the changes that have been introduced in the field of education administration since 2009 by the then socialist government. Our research aims to contribute to the critical policy literature on the spreading marketisation and privatisation in the governing of education around the world and in Europe – through the adoption of New Public Management and Educational Leadership models. In developing our theoretical perspective, we use the Foucauldian concepts of governmentality and discourse, and in order to conceptualise power and control relations in the organisation, transmission, acquisition, and evaluation of pedagogical knowledge, we draw on Bernstein's theory of symbolic control. Our study has examined how the field of education administration is governed through power and knowledge transformations. We trace these transformations by analysing systematically the pedagogic discourse through which the global governance discourse is relayed and becomes a ‘regime of truth’ within public policy and practice in Greece. We argue that such changes have significant implications for everyday educational practice and for the kinds of knowledge that are considered legitimate, and they may affect educational professionals' subjectivities in fundamental ways.

Keywords:

• global policies
• education administration
• governance
• symbolic control
• pedagogic discourse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Polychronis Sifakakis, MSc, is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of the Peloponnese, Greece. Currently, he serves as a School Advisor in the Primary Educational Directorate of Heraklion (Crete). His research interests and publications are in the field of education policy and administration, European governance, and teacher professionalism.

Anna Tsatsaroni is Professor of Sociology of Education in the Department of Social and Educational Policy of the University of the Peloponnese, Greece. Her intellectual interests lie within social theory, the sociology of educational knowledge and practices, and sociological approaches to education policy. Her research and publications focus on the recontextualisation of knowledge in diverse contexts and sites of formal and informal education. Her published work appears in a range of international journals, contributing critical approaches to education policy and research.

Antigone Sarakinioti holds a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education and Education Policy, awarded by the University of the Peloponnese, Greece. Her doctoral research was supported by the Greek ‘State Scholarships Foundation’ (IKY). Presently, she works in projects as independent researcher. Her main research interests and publications revolve around curricula and quality assurance in higher education, teacher education, European and global education policy, and discourse analysis.

Menie Kourou, MSc, is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of the Peloponnese, Greece. Currently, she works in the European School Luxembourg I as a Physical Education Teacher. She has also served as School Advisor in Greece for several years.

ORCID

Polychronis Sifakakis http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8157-8810

Notes

1 The related educational materials are displayed on the web page of the former Greek Pedagogic Institute and now Institute of Education Policy [online]. Available from: http://www.pi-schools.gr/programs/epim_stelexoi/ [Accessed 30 October 2014] (in Greek).