Session Information
23 SES 11 B, Perception and Use of Evaluation and Assessment: School Level
Paper Session
Contribution
Swedish public education has gone through an extensive reform period since the beginning of the 1990s. The fundamental structural changes, which involved replacing the management philosophy of a traditional model for public governance with management by results, are often labeled a ‘performative turn’ (Lindblad, 2010). However, it is yet to be empirically investigated if, and if so in what ways, this performative turn has had an effect on the organization of schools. This paper deals with the politics of school results and student performances as a communicative system (cf. Luhmann, 2006). It is part of an ongoing project, “School results and the lived curricula in contemporary society” at Gothenburg University.
The main aim of the paper is to discuss how schools manage school results and student performances. More specifically, we want to elaborate on a theoretical framework for understanding the implications of governing by results on organizational structure and behavior within schools (cf. Hacking, 2004). By integrating institutional theory and system theory (Luhmann, 1995) the article develops a theoretical framework for understanding the organization of students’ results and performances within schools. We refer to both formal and informal aspects of information systems within schools: Which are the central documents and forms developed in order to keep track of student performances? Which routines and practices for dealing with student performances are institutionalized within the school (c.f. Powell, 1999)?
The paper makes two main contributions: First it develops a theoretical framework for understanding the organization of students’ results within schools. Thus, the article contributes to the general theoretical understanding of the impact of governing by results on public education. It essentially develops the universal knowledge about the way in which schools structure their work in relation to student performances. Second, the paper makes an important empirical contribution as it analyses how individual schools organize and structure their work based on the knowledge that performances vary among individual students. Previous research has almost exclusively focused on the consequences of governing by results on the work of teachers and principals. By its focus on organizational aspects, the paper supplements the conventional view on the impact of governing by results in public education.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Christensen, T., Lægreid, P. Roness, P.G & K.A Røvik. 2007. Organization Theory and the Public sector. London and New York: Routledge. Hacking, I. 2007. Between Michel Foucault and Erving Goffman; Between discourse in the abstract and face-to-face interaction, Economy and Society, 33(3): 277-302. Lindblad, S. 2010. Turn taking in large-scale reforms: re-modelling welfare state education in Sweden. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft (in print) Luhmann, N. 1995. Social systems. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. Luhmann, N. 2006. Samfundets uddannelsessystem. København: Hans Reitzel. Powell, Michael 1999. The Audit Society. Rituals of verification. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Scott, R.W. Institutions and organizations. Second edition. London, Thousand Oaks, New Dehli: Sage publications.
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