School leadership and education policy-making in England

Abstract

We report on a major Economic and Social Science Research Council funded study: the Knowledge production in educational leadership Project (RES-000-23-1192), with a particular focus on the relationship between the state, public policy and knowledge. The project focused on the first 10 years of New Labour education policy-making, with a particular emphasis on investment in school leadership as a means of delivering radical reforms. The specific aims of the enquiry have been to examine knowledge production: the types of knowledge used in policy-making, the methodologies and claims to the truth being made, and the people involved in developing policy as politicians, advisors, consultants and researchers. We have explained the policy-making process by using theoretical tools from political science (regime theory) and Bourdieu's theory of practice (field and habitus) to develop a conceptual framework that we call regimes of practice. The article presents these regimes and examines their impact on how and why knowledge is used in policy-making.

Keywords:

• education policy
• New Labour
• Bourdieu
• knowledge production

Acknowledgements

The research on which this article is based was funded by the ESRC through the Knowledge production in educational leadership project 2006–2007 (ESRC RES-000-23-1192). The article is based on the full report which is available from the ESRC website. We would like to thank the ESRC for supporting this research, and we are deeply grateful to the people from all parts of the education system who have told us their stories and participated by giving generously of their time. We would like to thank the members of the Project Advisory Group for their engagement with the research and for the productive dialogue.

Notes

1. When New Labour came to power in 1997, the national ministry in London was called the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) after reorganisation had taken place in 1995. The DfEE became the DfES or Department for Education and Skills in 2001. In 2007 the DfES was split into two: Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)/Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).

2. The SSAT dates back to the City Technology Colleges Trust set up in 1987. In its current format the SSAT supports (1) secondary schools who have applied for and been awarded specialist school status e.g. sports or languages, (2) secondary schools that have been given Academy status with private sponsors. www.ssatrust.org.uk.

3. The GTC for England was established by Act of Parliament in 1998 as the professional body for teaching. www.gtce.org.uk.