Conference Agenda

Societies globally are increasingly characterised by uncertainty and upheaval, including continuing concerns about inequity and access to quality public education that meets the needs of young people today (Riddle et al., 2023). This symposium takes a nuanced approach to considering uncertainty in education politics and policy by closely examining the national and local policy environments in which schools are operating; recognising that they are set against a wider, turbulent, background.

The symposium brings diverse theoretical and methodological approaches to the question of uncertainty. It illuminates and instantiates the ways in which leaders might respond to uncertainty by trying to “play the game” required by differing, and often competing sets of rules. Theoretical lenses include Bourdieu and Foucault’s concepts, as well as taking a Social Network Analysis approach towards understanding the practices and experiences occurring in public education within different contexts. Further, the symposium explores the politics and policy of public schooling in England and Chile. This deliberately international focus highlights the global trends that exist in contemporary education policy while recognising the nuanced implications of local enactment of global policy trends.

The symposium explores the various ways school leaders navigate uncertainty. Two of the papers in this symposium suggest that leaders might ‘play the game’ as a method of navigating the complex political realities of schooling today in both England and Chile. In doing so, they show the ways school leaders might try to bring some certainty to frequently shifting ground – they might focus on developing relationships or on cultivating networks as a means of solidifying or renegotiating their positions within increasingly uncertain hierarchies or positions within public education.

The final paper brings an alternative viewpoint through its research with former school leaders in England who, rather than playing the game, were removed from the field entirely (either by choice, or by force). The concept of post-panopticism (Courtney, 2016) enables a nuanced analysis of the effects of school inspections in their current form, which are characterised by uncertainty from preparation all the way through to the sometimes-unintended effects of external inspection.

The symposium offers lessons about school leadership and governance, and how individual leaders as well as their school communities have navigated socially and politically turbulent periods. Their negotiation of uncertain policy environments highlights the inequities that persist in public schooling whether it be through ‘disadvantaged’ schools facing heavier scrutiny in school inspections; experiencing differential parental engagement depending on a school community’s socio-economic circumstances; or through the new ways schools are required to navigate and build relationships and networks to survive in an uncertain policy landscape.

The purpose of this paper is to present data and analysis to theorise how the corporatisation of educational leadership and governance for schools has reframed parental engagement in disadvantaged communities. By thinking with Bourdieu’s field theory (Bourdieu, 1977; 1990; 1998) I examine how corporatised educational leadership secures parental engagement as a corporate activity to acquire, regulate and naturalise parents in a corporatised field, strengthening the position of the multi-academy trusts, their schools and those leading and governing in the MAT. The corporatisation of the field (Saltman, 2010; Courtney, 2015; Enright et al., 2020) has seen a change in the stance and position of those responsible for the governance and leadership of schools. I present a model to conceptualise how corporatisation has rewritten the rules of the game, with parental engagement operationalised as corporate activity. This study is an ethno-graphically informed case study located in three MATs in England. Generated data from twenty-one interviews with leaders was analysed to understand how educational leadership secured the illusio of the game through parental engagement. Thinking with Bourdieu’s field theory I analysed the generated data to explore how the fields symbolic order and doxic relations are secured through parental engagement. This study reveals the drive to acquire parents, through a corporate framing of parental engagement, seeks those parents who are willing participants in the illusio (Bourdieu, 1998) of the game. However, this study extends Bourdieu’s field theory as it revealed that corporate actors deployed parental engagement as a strategy to acquire parents who do not recognise the illusio of the game. The acquisition of these parents acknowledges corporate actors as experts. However, to legitimate this recognition, they are required to regulate and naturalise these parents into the dispositions and practices of the field. This analysis is significant as it contributes a model that extends Bourdieu’s field theory. This model illuminates how parent engagement in a corporatised field of educational leadership aims to acquire, regulate and naturalise parents into the field. Underpinning the extension of Bourdieu’s field theory is my argument that parental engagement has been purposed as a corporate activity to secure acquisitions and the dynamic of power between actors. Furthermore, I contribute empirically to the field by providing a model to analyse the parental engagement activities within the field of educational leadership to understand the purposing of such activities in relation to the fields forces and doxic relations.

Bourdieu, P. (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice. Translated by R. Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1990b) Logic of Practice. Translated by R. Nice. Standford, CA: Standford University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1998) Practical Reason. Translated by R. Nice. Cambridge: Policy Press. Courtney, S.J. (2015) ‘Corporatised leadership in English schools.’, Journal of Educational Administration and History, 47(3): 214–231. Enright, E., Hogan, A. and Rossi, T. (2020) The commercial school heterarchy, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 41:2: 187-205, Saltman, K. J. (2010) The Gift of Education: Public Education and Venture Philanthropy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

The New Public Education reform (NPE) is meant to enhance the depressed Chilean public school system via new middle-tier governing bodies administrating and supporting public schools (Anderson et al., 2023). As part of this reform, thematic networks and a networking policy approach have been promoted within new school districts. This paper reports on the use of networks by school leaders to engage in and make sense of the broader social space schools are part of. This study is part of a larger research project on collaboration and support between schools in a recently established school district. The district is composed of public schools that were previously administrated by three adjacent urban municipalities in Santiago, Chile. From a Social Network Analysis approach (SNA) (Freeman, 2004; Marin and Wellman 2011), this research delves into the declared inter-organisational networks and ties reported by school headteachers from sixteen primary schools. Primary data comes from interviews where participants were encouraged to name and map other schools they have a relationship with, and reflect on the content, history and value of those ties. Declared partners range between 4 and 50 and the vast majority are other public schools from their school district. Although many of these are relationships taking place within – and thanks to – district-based mandated networks, others are ties that schools and school leaders have built and maintained on their own. This paper sets itself in the mismatch between policy-led networks and those declared by headteachers and provides insights into the reasons and purposes that formal and informal networks play in both managing and leading schools, and inhabiting the new policy landscape schools are part of. This paper unveils the importance of inter-organisational ties and the engagement of school leaders with the broader surrounding social space they are part of. It is argued in this paper that connecting with others beyond schools is key in order to make sense of, navigate, and overcome the uncertainty that comes with the settlement of a new policy landscape amidst a persisting crisis in the Chilean public education system.

Anderson, S., Uribe, M., & Valenzuela, J. P. (2023). Reforming public education in Chile: The creation of local education services. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 51(2), 481-501. Freeman, L. (2004). The development of social network analysis. A Study in the Sociology of Science, 1(687), 159-167. Marin, A., & Wellman, B. (2011). Social network analysis: An introduction. The SAGE handbook of social network analysis, 11-25.

This paper explores uncertainty in school leaders’ work, with a focus on high-stakes school inspections in England. We explore the ways inspections cause uncertainty for school leaders navigating the politics of post-panoptic education policy (Courtney, 2016). The paper takes up the network call to explore the unintended consequences of education policy in a time of uncertainty. In doing so, the paper analyses concepts of surveillance; the role not making sense to those within it; and leaders' work in filling gaps they experienced in support that would have enabled them to navigate uncertainty more confidently. Post-panopticism (Courtney, 2016) provides the lens for our analysis of uncertainty for school leaders who are navigating the politics of school inspection. The features of post-panopticism lead to uncertainty for leaders in how they might prepare for school inspection as well as to the unintended consequences of school inspection policy enactment. These characteristics include total visibility for the school and leader, norms that are characterised as fixed but in reality are in flux, and that disrupt the ways leaders have constructed themselves within these policy environments. Importantly, the effects of post-panoptic school inspections are experienced differentially depending on local context. This paper analyses stories of leaders in ‘disadvantaged’ schools who experienced school inspections in ways that were more uncertain than those who were more advantaged within the current system. Comprising loosely structured interviews (Alvesson, 2011) with 14 former headteachers of public schools in England, we undertook a collaborative analysis exploring uncertainty and the unintended consequences of school inspection policies in three areas: 1. The embodied effects of surveillance in a post-panoptic policy environment. We explore the consequences for leaders’ health and wellbeing, and intention or ability to remain within the profession. 2. The ways leaders attempt to make sense of the unintended consequences of school inspections and the surrounding apparatus. 3. The ways leaders who leave the profession undertake work that fills gaps they identified, including professional support, care work, development and mentoring. The final point underscores that former leaders are addressing inadequacies in systemic support for their colleagues. It also shows that they were not necessarily unwilling to continue in education, but that the work of a school leader in its current form is unsustainable. This holds consequences for long-term workforce planning, and greater attention needs to be paid to the stories of former leaders so we can learn from their experiences.

Alvesson, M. (2011). Interpreting Interviews. SAGE Publications. Courtney, S.J. (2016). Post-panopticism and school inspection in England. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 37(4), 623-642. doi:10.1080/01425692.2014.965806