Entrepreneurialism, Leadership and Contending Forces for Change in Academies

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• Professor Philip Woods and Dr Glenys Woods, University of Gloucestershire
• Thursday 22 October 2009, 14:00-15:30
• Faculty of Education, 184 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 8PQ.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Lyndsay.

The Academies programme in England is intended to bring about radical change in the form of state education and is part of a process that is creating a more complex and diverse education system with a plurality of new players seeking to shape and influence school education. By September 2008, there were 133 Academies, with more in the pipeline and the aim being to create 400. In this seminar, Philip Woods and Glenys Woods provide an overview of their work on Academies, reporting case study research into an inner city Academy and drawing from their wider work regarding Academies, entrepreneurialism, leadership and private participation in education.

This seminar will give a brief outline of the programme’s policy context and how its characterists and the pattern of sponsorship have evolved since the first Academies opened in 2002. It will be suggested that the Academies policy exemplifies an emerging governance system of ‘plural controlled schooling’, raising fundamental questions concerning the nature and accountability of school education. Findings from the case study “Academy” will be reported with particular reference to its approach to enterprise and leadership. Data were collected in staged visits, and include interviews with the Academy leadership, classroom teachers, sponsors and students; self-completion surveys of staff and students; and observations, documentation and informal interactions. Analysis (which is ongoing) suggest that, alongside an ‘undertow’ of influence from business entrepreneurialism that seeks to advance values such as participation, deliberative democracy and social justice. We are also examining the Academy’s emergent leadership scheme which generates a buzz and enthusiastic collaborative involvement reminiscent of the notion in business literature of ‘hot spots’ characterised by energy, ‘igniting purpose’ and co-operative mindsets. One of the questions we are engaging with is whether this scheme is explainable simply in terms of an instrumental, performative, driven rationality or whether it also shows signs of a deeper orientation with features of spirituality and democratic leadership.

Concluding reflections will be shared with reference to, amongst other things, two competing hypothesis: the convergence hypothesis, suggesting that despite an emphasis on innovation and diversity, academies tend to centre around an instrumentally driven, business-orientated model of entrepreneurialism and educational priorities, and the diversification hypothesis, in which meanings and practice show significant variations, including opportunities for progressive change.

This talk is part of the ELPEC Group Seminars series.

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