Boundary spanners, network capital and the rise of edu-businesses: the case of News Corporation and its emerging education agenda

Abstract

This paper provides a critical analysis of News Corporation and argues that through the acquisition of high profile policy actor, Joel Klein, News Corporation has been able to assemble significant network capital to position itself as an entity apparently responsible for the public good and with a role to play in public policymaking. My aim in this paper was to document and analyse how the contexts of policy influence in education are evolving through the involvement of multinational edu-businesses and the quasi-privatisation of the education policy community globally. I analyse the place of education in News Corporation’s current business strategy as exemplary of the changing role that businesses are playing in education policy processes nationally and globally and argue that we are seeing the emergence of powerful new policy actors. This analysis is set against the emerging literature that seeks to analyse the increasing influence of edu-businesses on education policy processes and locates these developments within considerations of changing educational governance structures, new privatisations and public–private partnerships in education. It is argued that boundary spanners like Klein with their intimate ‘inside knowledge’ of state structures are mobilising network capital to frame policy problems and advocate policy solutions in ways that are attractive to education policymakers while also being commercially beneficial to News Corporation and their shareholders.

Keywords:

• edu-business
• boundary spanner
• network capital
• philanthrocapitalism
• public–private partnerships
• education policy

Notes

^1. ARIS and School of One were delivered by Wireless Generation – an education technology and software company focused on mobile assessments and instructional analytics – when Klein was New York City Education Chancellor. A few months after recruiting Klein, News Corp purchased a 90% stake in the company for $360 million, which launched the structural platform of Amplify of which Klein is CEO.

^2. Amplify is divided into three subsidiaries: Insight (assessment products and consultancy services), Learning (digital curriculum and resources) and Access (development of an education-centric tablet).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Hogan

Anna Hogan BAppSc(HMS-Edu)(Hons), MEdSt, is completing a PhD as a full time student in the School of Education at The University of Queensland, Australia. She is researching the role of edu-business in education policy processes both globally and nationally. She is an experienced secondary school teacher.