Does implementing problem-solving projects affect decisional style? Developing governance capabilities in school management committees

ABSTRACT

Faith in the power of local decision-making underpins decentralised democratic governance, but the evidence for its effectiveness is mixed. It is in this context that school management committees (SMCs) were established in 2009–10 in India. Training these SMCs received has been criticised for focusing only a set of high expectations built around an idealised set of roles and responsibilities, and not on the members’ decision-making capabilities. We describe how problem-solving projects can be employed to develop such capabilities, through a field experiment in 50 SMCs, with another 50 serving as controls, that studied decisional styles of 603 SMC members. The analysis was based on a confirmatory factor analysis of a two-factor (vigilant and maladaptive styles) model, with the variation among SMCs controlled through a two-level model and path analysis. There was a significant positive effect on the vigilant decision-making style of those who participated in the programme (β = 0.195, p < .05), though maladaptive styles increased in both the treatment and control groups. Given that SMCs are expected to remain a feature of local governance structures, the importance of functional partnerships between the SMCs and school principals is indicated.

KEYWORDS:

• Decisional style
• vigilant style
• school management committees
• school-based governance
• MDMQ

Acknowledgments

UNICEF Gujarat supported the development of the handbook reported in this paper. We thank Avinash Bhandari and Megha Gajjar for their assistance in the fieldwork.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The SMC has 12 members, six of them women; nine of the 12 have to be parents of the children studying in the school and one of the remaining three is the local government’s representative.

2. The use of the technique was limited only to the selection of control villages. No other use of the technique was made.

3. Caste identity is an ascribed social identity, based on the social group into which one is born. Certain groups are listed under ‘Other Backward Classes’, Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes for purposes of affirmative action. Members not belonging to these three categories are classified as ‘General’.

4. The summary report of the visits is available at www.inshodh.org and short videos of the interviews with the SMCs are available at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHqun_bFUvMtDPYv0tJcK2MHO1z4XNstE.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vijaya Sherry Chand

Vijaya Sherry Chand, His research focus is on the antecedents and consequences of innovative work performance of teachers.

Ketan Satish Deshmukh

Ketan Satish Deshmukh, doctoral student, His research interests include use of technology in education, game-based learning, and public outreach programmes by science centers & museums.