School's logics of action as mediation and compromise between internal dynamics and external constraints and pressures

Abstract

This paper, based on 14 case studies of schools situated in six local urban spaces (within the urban agglomerations of Budapest, Charleroi, Lille, Lisbon, London and the Creteil/Paris region), will analyse the internal logics of action of these schools and show that they are conditioned by the interaction between internal (school narrative identity, principal strategy, school intake and micropolitics) and external factors (position of the school in the local space of competitive interdependence and policy interventions). First, we will show that there are some convergences across the six local areas in the schools' logics of action. Second, we will focus on various conditions which could affect these schools' logics of action. We will demonstrate that key conditions are the ‘school mix’, related to the position of the school in the local area, and the internal dynamic equilibrium. We will also concentrate on the particular role of the principal. In conclusion, the effects of these results on inequalities will be stressed.

Keywords:

• schools' logic of action
• market
• regulation
• international comparison

Notes

1. The social and political settings and market positions of each case study school, as well as the interdependent relationships of case study schools with ‘neighbouring’ schools, have been described in some detail in van Zanten (submitted). (See also Maroy 2006; Delvaux & van Zanten 2004.)

2. By this we mean all the accounts through which members of the etablishment proclaim the specificity of their school. This identity could, in various ways, be linked to its past, its social or institutional characteristics, its pedagogical philosophy or its more general ideology.

3. Each school is situated in relation to its country of belonging. The letter refers to the country: B = Belgium; E = England; F = France; H = Hungary; and P = Portugal.