Education Governance and Social Theory: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Research

The study of 'education governance' is a significant area of research in the twenty-first century. A key focus of this research is the changing organisation of education systems and relations against the background of wider political and economic developments occurring nationally and globally, and its articulation or sedimentation at the local level through the formation of specific policy programs, discourses, objects, practices, subjectivities, and effects. In Education Governance and Social Theory these important issues are critically examined through a range of theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches and empirical case studies of education governance within and across diverse geo-political contexts including Australia, Chile, England, Russia, and Slovakia.

The book is designed as a pedagogical tool to guide those interested in better understanding and engaging with education governance as an object of critical inquiry and a tool or method of research. With contributions from an international line-up of academics, the book includes chapters on digital data and infrastructures, inspection policy, professionalism, accountability, public-private partnerships, bureaucracy, leadership, and the media. Moreover, each chapter judiciously combines theory and methodologies with case study material to situate education governance within specific sets of social relations, institutional orders and broader social movements. This is a theoretically and empirically rich resource for those who wish to research education governance and its multifarious operations, conditions and effects, but are not sure how to do so. It will therefore appeal to readers who have a strong interest in the practical application of social theory to making sense of the complex changes underway in education across the globe.