In this paper we examine a process of policy innovation in the field of education, focusing on the conditions under which a new mechanism for selecting head teachers through testing, inspired by NPM discourse, comes into being as a new ‘regime of practices’. We combine sensibilities derived both from governmentality studies and tools from the ANT-inspired research framework developed by Michel Callon on performativity, focusing on the actualization of the new testing device (and its related formula) that makes more calculable the core of a process formerly based on professional appraisal and peer judgement. The work highlights a set of paradoxical performations of the socio-technical agencements (STAs) through which the new formula on candidate selection is actualized: a) the making of the test as a contestable and vulnerable obligatory passage point; b) the commodification of knowledge about testing and the reinforcing and opening up of intertwining markets; c) the disentangling and fragmenting of aspiring head teachers’ professional identities. In this context the dismissal and replacement of some core statements of the bureau-professional discourse seem to emerge through the dispersed process of re-designing both the head teacher’s professional identity and the selection/recruitment procedure. The world of professionalism appears to be the ‘loser in this affair’.
NPM discourse, testing and the selection of head teachers. Education Policy innovation as a collective performation / Grimaldi, Emiliano; G., Barzano'; Serpieri, Roberto. - (2013). (Intervento presentato al convegno 8th International Conference in Critical Management Studies ‘Extending the limits of neo-liberal capitalism’ tenutosi a University of Manchester, UK nel 10-12 July 2013).
NPM discourse, testing and the selection of head teachers. Education Policy innovation as a collective performation
GRIMALDI, EMILIANO;SERPIERI, ROBERTO
2013
Abstract
In this paper we examine a process of policy innovation in the field of education, focusing on the conditions under which a new mechanism for selecting head teachers through testing, inspired by NPM discourse, comes into being as a new ‘regime of practices’. We combine sensibilities derived both from governmentality studies and tools from the ANT-inspired research framework developed by Michel Callon on performativity, focusing on the actualization of the new testing device (and its related formula) that makes more calculable the core of a process formerly based on professional appraisal and peer judgement. The work highlights a set of paradoxical performations of the socio-technical agencements (STAs) through which the new formula on candidate selection is actualized: a) the making of the test as a contestable and vulnerable obligatory passage point; b) the commodification of knowledge about testing and the reinforcing and opening up of intertwining markets; c) the disentangling and fragmenting of aspiring head teachers’ professional identities. In this context the dismissal and replacement of some core statements of the bureau-professional discourse seem to emerge through the dispersed process of re-designing both the head teacher’s professional identity and the selection/recruitment procedure. The world of professionalism appears to be the ‘loser in this affair’.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
