You are here:

Introducing managerialism into national educational contexts through pseudo-conflict: A discursive institutionalist analysis
ARTICLE

, Sapir College, Israel ; , The Open University of Israel, Israel

International Journal of Educational Development Volume 68, Number 1, ISSN 0738-0593 Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

Abstract

This article provides a fresh perspective on the introduction of global ideas, particularly managerialism, into national educational settings, based on insights of the discursive institutionalism approach. We argue that this introduction may occur as various policy actors promote different versions of managerialism, leading to a debate between education policy actors holding common managerialist assumptions and beliefs, in other words, a pseudo-conflict. The result is a conflict over education policy that is strictly bounded by shared assumptions and beliefs. We analyze the discourse of leading policy actors during two consecutive tenures of Israeli Education Ministers (2009–2013, 2013–2015), using parliamentary protocols and press interviews.

Citation

Avigur-Eshel, A. & Berkovich, I. (2019). Introducing managerialism into national educational contexts through pseudo-conflict: A discursive institutionalist analysis. International Journal of Educational Development, 68(1), 1-8. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved December 8, 2022 from .

This record was imported from International Journal of Educational Development on June 3, 2019. International Journal of Educational Development is a publication of Elsevier.

Full text is availabe on Science Direct: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2019.04.003

Keywords

References

View References & Citations Map
  1. Addi-Raccah, A. (2015). School principals’ role in the interplay between the superintendents and local education authorities: The case of Israel. J. Educ. Adm., 53(2), pp. 287-306.
  2. Amaral, A., Fulton, O., & Larsen, I.M. (2003). A managerial revolution?. The Higher Education Managerial Revolution?, pp. 275-296. Dordrecht: Springer.
  3. Astiz, M.F., Wiseman, A.W., & Baker, D.P. (2002). Slouching towards decentralization: consequences of globalization for curricular control in national education systems. Comp. Educ. Rev., 46(1), pp. 66-88.
  4. Ball, S.J. (1998). Big policies/small world: an introduction to international perspectives in education policy. Comp. Educ., 34(2), pp. 119-130.
  5. Beckert, J. (2010). Institutional isomorphism revisited: convergence and divergence in institutional change. Sociol. Theory, 28(2), pp. 150-166.
  6. Berkovich, I. (2014). Neo-liberal governance and the 'new professionalism' of Israeli principals. Comp Educ. Rev., 3, pp. 428-456.
  7. Berkovich, I. (2017). Educational reform hyperwaves: reconceptualizing Cuban's theories of change. Journal of Educational Change, 4, pp. 413-438.
  8. Brehony, K.J. (2005). Primary schooling under New Labour: The irresolvable contradiction of excellence and enjoyment. Oxf. Rev. Educ., 31(1), pp. 29-46.
  9. Bromley, P. (2016). Policy and administration as culture: organizational sociology and cross‐national education trends. The Handbook of Global Education Policy, pp. 470-489. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  10. Carney, S., Rappleye, J., & Silova, I. (2012). Between faith and science: world culture theory and comparative education. Comp. Educ. Rev., 56(3), pp. 366-393.
  11. Carstensen, M.B. (2011). Paradigm man vs. the bricoleur: bricolage as an alternative vision of agency in ideational change. Eur. Political Sci. Rev., 3(1), pp. 147-167.
  12. Carstensen, M.B., & Schmidt, V.A. (2016). Power through, over and in ideas: Conceptualizing ideational power in discursive institutionalism. J. Eur. Public Policy, 23(3), pp. 318-337.
  13. Deem, R. (1998). ’New managerialism’ and higher education: The management of performances and cultures in universities in the United Kingdom. Int. Stud. Sociol. Educ., 8(1), pp. 47-70.
  14. DiMaggio, P.J., & Powell, W.W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. Am. Sociol. Rev., 48, pp. 147-160.
  15. Dixon, J., Kouzmin, A., & Korac-Kakabadse, N. (1998). Managerialism-something old, something borrowed, little new: Economic prescription versus effective organizational change in public agencies. Int. J. Public Sect. Manag., 11(2/3), pp. 164-187.
  16. Eyal, O., & Berkovich, I. (2011). National challenges, educational reforms, and their influence on school management: the Israeli case. Educational Planning, 4, pp. 44-63.
  17. Feniger, Y., & Lefstein, A. (2014). How not to reason with PISA data: An ironic investigation. J. Educ. Policy, 29(6), pp. 845-855.
  18. Feniger, Y., Israeli, M., & Yehuda, S. (2016). The power of numbers: the adoption and consequences of national low-stakes standardised tests in Israel. Glob. Soc. Educ., 14(2), pp. 183-202.
  19. Gavriely-Nuri, D. (2010). The idiosyncratic language of Israeli ‘peace’: A cultural approach to critical discourse analysis (CCDA). Discourse Soc., 21(5), pp. 565-585.
  20. Goodwin, M. (2015). Schools policy, governance and politics under New Labour. Political Stud. Rev., 13(4), pp. 534-545.
  21. Harpaz, Y. (2009). “I shall note five main objectives…”. Interview with the Minister of Education. Hed Hachinuch, pp. 24-27.
  22. Harpaz, Y. (2011). "It’s all measured." Dr. Shimshon Shoshani has said goodbye to the Ministry of Education and he is optimistic. Hed Hachinuch, pp. 20-23.
  23. Hoyle, E., & Wallace, M. (2005). Educational Leadership: Ambiguity, Professionals and Managerialism. London: Sage.
  24. Kickert, W.J. (1997). Public governance in The Netherlands: an alternative to Anglo‐American ‘managerialism’. Public Adm., 75(4), pp. 731-752.
  25. Knafo, S., Dutta, S.J., Lane, R., & Wyn-Jones, S. (2018). The managerial lineages of neoliberalism. New Political Econ., pp. 1-17.
  26. Lingard, B., Sellar, S., & Baroutsis, A. (2015). Researching the habitus of global policy actors in education. Camb. J. Educ., 45(1), pp. 25-42.
  27. Lingard, B., Sellar, S., & Lewis, S. (2017). Accountabilities in schools and school systems. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education, pp. 1-28. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  28. Lynch, K., Grummell, B., & Devine, D. (2012). New Managerialism in Education: Commercialization, Carelessness and Gender. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  29. Maroy, C. (2009). Convergences and hybridization of educational policies around ‘post‐bureaucratic’models of regulation. Compare, 39(1), pp. 71-84.
  30. Mizrahi-Shtelman, R., & Drori, G.S. (2016). ‘Taking root and growing wings’: On the concept of glocality from the perspectives of school principals in Israel. Eur. J. Cult. Political Sociol., 3(2-3), pp. 306-340.
  31. Newman, J., & Clarke, J. (1994). Going about our business? The managerialization of public services. Managing Social Policy, pp. 13-31. London: Sage.
  32. Normand, R. (2010). Expertise, networks and indicators: the construction of the European strategy in education. Eur. Educ. Res. J., 9(3), pp. 407-421.
  33. O’Reilly, D., & Reed, M. (2011). The grit in the oyster: Professionalism, managerialism and leaderism as discourses of UK public services modernization. Organ. Stud., 32(8), pp. 1079-1101.
  34. Ozga, J. (2009). Governing education through data in England: From regulation to self-evaluation. J. Educ. Policy, 24(2), pp. 149-162.
  35. Page, D. (2017). The surveillance of teachers and the simulation of teaching. J. Educ. Policy, 32(1), pp. 1-13.
  36. Phillips, D., & Ochs, K. (2003). Processes of policy borrowing in education: some explanatory and analytical devices. Comp. Educ., 39(4), pp. 451-461.
  37. Pizmony-Levy, O. (2018). Compare globally, interpret locally: International assessments and news media in Israel. Glob. Soc. Educ., 16(5), pp. 577-595.
  38. Pocklington, K., & Wallace, M. (2014). Managing Complex Educational Change: Large Scale Reorganisation of Schools. London: Routledge.
  39. Ramirez, F.O. (2012). The world society perspective: concepts, assumptions, and strategies. Comp. Educ., 48(4), pp. 423-439.
  40. Ramirez, F.O., Meyer, J.W., & Lerch, J. (2016). World society and the globalization of educational policy. The Handbook of Global Education Policy, pp. 43-63. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  41. Ranson, S. (2003). Public accountability in the age of neo-liberal governance. J. Educ. Policy, 18(5), pp. 459-480.
  42. Resnik, J. (2011). The construction of a managerial education discourse and the involvement of philanthropic entrepreneurs: the case of Israel. Crit. Stud. Educ., 52(3), pp. 251-266.
  43. Sagie, N., & Yemini, M. (2017). Cynical neoliberalism or true agency? Israeli governmental discourse about entrepreneurship in the education system. Comp.: J. Compar. Int. Educ.
  44. Sahlberg, P. (2006). Education reform for raising economic competitiveness. J. Educ. Change, 7(4), pp. 259-287.
  45. Sammons, P. (2008). Zero tolerance of failure and New Labour approaches to school improvement in England. Oxf. Rev. Educ., 34(6), pp. 651-664.
  46. Schmidt, V.A. (2008). Discursive institutionalism: the explanatory power of ideas and discourse. Annu. Rev. Political Sci., 11, pp. 303-326.
  47. Schmidt, V.A. (2010). Taking ideas and discourse seriously: explaining change through discursive institutionalism as the fourth ‘new institutionalism’. Eur. Political Sci. Rev., 2(1), pp. 1-25.
  48. Schmidt, V.A. (2016). The roots of neo-liberal resilience: Explaining continuity and change in background ideas in Europe’s political economy. Br. J. Polit. Int. Relat., 18(2), pp. 318-334.
  49. Shafir, G., & Peled, Y. (2002). Being Israeli. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  50. Shepherd, S. (2018). Managerialism: an ideal type. Stud. High. Educ., 43(9), pp. 1668-1678.
  51. Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2012). Understanding policy borrowing and lending: building comparative policy studies. Policy Borrowing and Lending in Education, pp. 3-17. New York: Routledge.
  52. Stevenson, H., & Wood, P. (2014). Markets, managerialism and teachers’ work: the invisible hand of high stakes testing in England. Int. Educ. J.: Compar. Perspect., 12(2).
  53. Verger, A. (2014). Why do policy-makers adopt global education policies? Toward a research framework on the varying role of ideas in education reform. Curr. Issues Compar. Educ., 16(2), pp. 14-29.
  54. Wahlström, N., & Sundberg, D. (2018). Discursive institutionalism: towards a framework for analysing the relation between policy and curriculum. J. Educ. Policy, 33(1), pp. 163-183.
  55. Yemini, M., & Dvir, Y. (2016). International Baccalaureate as a litmus test revealing conflicting values and power relations in the Israeli education system. Discourse Stud. Cult. Politics Educ., 37(2), pp. 310-323.
  56. Yemini, M., & Gordon, N. (2017). Media representations of national and international standardized testing in the Israeli education system. Discourse Stud. Cult. Politics Educ., 38(2), pp. 262-276.
  57. Ynet (2013). Gideon Saar at Ynet Studios: Elimination of the School Efficiency and Growth Exams – A Dangerous Step That Will Lead to the Deterioration of Israel’s Students. Available online: https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4417583,00.html.

These references have been extracted automatically and may have some errors. Signed in users can suggest corrections to these mistakes.

Suggest Corrections to References