Helen Ryan-Atkin
Manchester Metropolitan University
Helen Ryan-Atkin is a senior lecturer in Education at MMU, and is undergoing a doctoral study. Her research interests include education policy and structural change within our education organisations, and how recent developments are having an impact on local democracy, community involvement and educator identity. Having worked as a primary school teacher, and then as a member of the Oldham School Improvement Team, Helen has seen the effect from both sides - management and classroom practitioner, of successive government 'reforms', in terms of acceptance of innovation, impact on students, and staff morale. Helen is also interested in the use of critical discourse analysis and the application of Foucault's theories of power and language, in the study of speeches by politicians: her Masters dissertation involved the analysis of a speech by Michael Gove whilst Education Secretary, which was remarkable for its omission of the word 'children'.The recent drive by the Conservative government to convert all schools to academies, which have no democratically elected members in their trust boards, has prompted Helen to focus her research on the implications for our school communities.
Since the introduction of the Academy Programme in 2000, there has been unprecedented changes and acceleration of the policy but perhaps of most concern from an accountability and governance perspective has been the increasing ‘democratic deficit’ (Gunter, 2011:12). The introduction of Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) has seen the chains of accountability and governance arrangements emerge which are entirely distinct from public accountability structures, representing a ‘new modality of state power, agency and social action’ (Ball, 2013:226). In this new landscape, where business values and upward accountability are at the fore, schools and head teachers have been encouraged or manoeuvred into forging new partnerships, bringing a number of school-based accountability measures that schools are forced to comply with but we know relatively little about how these are being navigated (West et al, 2011).
This research is part of a doctoral study of three MATs in the North-West of England, each having undergone a relatively recent change in status, and situated in areas of low socio-economic status. Using a critical social policy approach, and drawing on the tools of critical discourse analysis, the study includes interviews with a range of stakeholders: CEOs, trustees, governors, school staff, parents, and local community figures, together with analysis of policy documentation. This roundtable discussion will seek to explore the implications of initial findings from the first set of interviews undertaken, to understand how governance and accountability arrangements are being interpreted in relation to recent changes in status and how this has been perceived to have brought new freedoms and constraints. A focus on the study is how MAT managers and school leaders negotiate agency and governance, and how this affects identity, at both school and individual level.
Initial results suggest some confusion in the changing of roles amongst governors, and a lack of clarity over accountability measures, with LGB members feeling a sense of being 'observers'.
This research hopes to contribute to the growing debate around academies, by giving a voice to a range of players involved in the life of a MAT, and exploring their lived experiences at a point of important change.
Ball, S. 2013, The Education Debate, 2nd Ed., Bristol: The Policy Press
Gunter, H. (ed.) 2011, The State and Education Policy: the Academies Programme. London: Continuum.
West, A., Mattei, P. and Roberts, J. 2011, Accountability and Sanctions in English Schools. British Journal of Educational Studies, 59 (1), 41-62.
