Educational Management in Managerialist Times : Beyond the Textual Apologists

“This closely argued and lively polemic is recommended for all policymakers and practitioners concerned with educational leadership and change” BJET

“Thrupp and Willmott have produced a very important book regarding knowledge claims around issues of policy and practice…. I will be recommending my masters and doctoral students to read the book so that as practitioners they may relish the opportunity to engage with issues of knowledge production. Thrupp and Willmott’s book is directly relevant to every day practice in teaching and learning across the educational system, and it should be required reading for all training programmes because it enables trainees to know and understand the knowledge structures that are being used to control their work and identities.” BJES

"... will stir a lot of debate and be seminal to debates about the direction of education management for some time to come." Mike Bottery, Hull University

"...a genuinely readable and accessible book that critically engages with school management literature." InService Education Journal

This important and provocative book is not another 'how to' educational management text. Instead it offers a critical review of the extensive educational management literature itself.

The main concern of the authors is that educational management texts do not do enough to encourage school leaders and teachers to challenge social inequality or the market and managerial reforms of the last decade. They demonstrate this problem through detailed analyses of texts in the areas of educational marketing, school improvement, development planning and strategic human resource management, school leadership and school change.

For academics and students, Education Management in Managerialist Times offers a critical guide to existing educational management texts and makes a strong case for redefining educational management along more socially and politically informed lines. The book also offers practitioners alternative management strategies intended to contest, rather than support, managerialism, while being realistic about the context within which those who lead and manage schools currently have to work.

This controversial new title brings a new insight to the educational management debate.

Martin Thrupp is Reader in Education Policy at King's College, London. His research interests include the nature and impact of educational reform in England and New Zealand, the social and political limitations of educational management literatures, and the influence of social class on school processes. He is currently involved in a study of educational autonomy and regulation across five European countries. His last Open University Press book Schools Making a Difference: Let's Be Realistic! won the 1999 SCSE Book Prize.

Robert Willmott previously lectured at the Universities of Birmingham and Bath. His research interests include realist social theory, education policy, pedagogy and the 'new managerialism', which are reflected in his recent book Realist Social Theory and Education Policy (Routledge 2002). He is currently training to teach in primary schools.