School Governance: Metaphors and Dilemmas for School Leadership

In an era of market reform and the corporatisation of schools, there is little academic literature that investigates the dynamics of governance and change at the individual school level as schools deal with increased accountability demands and the imposition of business models. There are pressures on school boards and leadership to envisage themselves less as communities and more as commercial entities. This book offers valuable insights into these issues and reports on several themes and changes in governance of board-governed schools over thirty years. It gives clear warning that, as the role of traditional school leader in these schools and the goodwill they enjoyed diminishes, so does the passion that sustained them. It analyses the problems and concludes that it is not the structures or individuals that are crucial in governance processes but the playing out of particular tensions and dilemmas. This is a valuable book for Principals, school boards and others involved in various forms of governance, as they adjust to market ideologies and imperatives, and grapple with the competing values systems of changing consumer expectations.