Session Information
23 SES 02 B, New Forms of Governing in School Education (Part 2)
Paper Session continued from 23 SES 01 B, to be continued in 23 SES 03 B
Contribution
In the field of education, results-based management (RBM) policy provides new tools (planning, contracting and accountability) meant to better align the goals and operations of schools with objectives contractually determined at higher levels of action. These higher levels include school boards (SB, meso-level) and the Ministry of Education (ME, central level) (Maroy, Mathou, Vaillancourt, & Voisin, 2014).
Based on a theoretical framework consisting of new institutionalism applied to institutional change (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Powell & Colyvas, 2008; Streeck & Thelen, 2005), along with a sociologie de l’action publique approach on public policy implementation (Commaille, 2006), we argue that RBM is contributing to the institutionalisation of pedagogical management in Quebec’s education system. RBM entails institutional transformations which tend strongly towards the rationalization and regulation of pedagogical work, through new schemes and tools allowing greater monitoring, evaluation and accountability in regard to professional work. This departmental policy is actually amplified by SB leaders and certain establishment directors, in an effort to merge tasks and tools pertaining to management with those pertaining to teaching, evaluation and teacher coordination (Boxenbaum & Jonsson, 2008). In effect, the hold executives have over pedagogical activities in many topics subjected to external evaluation (such as French, science, history and math) actually transforms and accentuates pedagogical management, which is not an entirely new phenomenon in Quebec.
In order to document this interpretation, we shall first present the SBs’ RBM implementation strategies, focusing mainly on their similarities rather than their differences. We shall also bring to light the conditions and mechanisms which facilitate the institutionalisation of pedagogical management. This will show how this process is not only the result of the constraining effect of government policies (laws 124 and 88, 2002 and 2008), but also that of mimetic processes, of expert non-governmental entities producing statistical and school-monitoring tools, and of the normative beliefs, ideas and orientations of school executives and SB leaders, who are fundamentally convinced of the importance of the ‘’establishment effect’’ as a determining factor in educational success.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Boxenbaum, E., & Jonsson, S. (2008). lsomorphism, Diffusion and Decoupling. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, R. Suddaby & K. Sahlin (dir.), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism (p. 78-97). London: Sage. Commaille, J. (2006). Sociologie de l'action publique. In L. Boussaguet, S. Jacquot & P. Ravinet (dir.), Dictionnaire des politiques publiques (p. 415-423). Paris: Les presses de Sciences Po. DiMaggio, P. J., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited : Institutionnal isomorphism and collective rationality in organisational fields American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147-160. Maroy, C., Mathou, C., Vaillancourt, S., & Voisin, A. (2014). La construction de la politique de "Gestion axée sur les résultats" au Québec : récits d'action publique et trajectoire de la politique Education comparée/Nouvelle série, 12, 45-69. Powell, W. W., & Colyvas, J. A. (2008). Microfoundations of Institutional Theory. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, R. Suddaby & K. Sahlin (dir.), The Sage Handbook of Organisational Institutionalism (p. 276-298). London: Sage. Streeck, W., & Thelen, K. (2005). Beyond continuity : institutional change in advanced political economies. Oxford Oxford University Press.
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