Is the privatisation of state education defendable? Did the public sector ever provide a fair education for all learners?  In Education plc, Stephen Ball provides a comprehensive, analytic and empirical account of the privatisation of education. He questions the kind of future we want for education and what role privatisation and the private sector may have in that future. Using policy sociology to describe and critically analyse changes in policy, policy technologies and policy regimes, he looks at the ethical and democratic impacts of these changes and raises the following questions:  Is there a legitimacy for privatisation based on the convergence of interests between business and the ‘third way’ state?     Is the extent and value of private participation in public education misunderstood?     How is the selling of private company services linked to the remodelling of schools?     Why have the technical and political issues of privatisation been considered but ethical issues almost totally neglected?     What is happening here, beyond mere technical changes in the form of public service delivery?     Is education policy being spoken by new voices?   Drawing upon extensive documentary research and interviews with senior executives from the leading ‘education services industry’ companies, the author challenges preconceptions about privatisation. He concludes that blanket defence of the public sector as it was, over and against the inroads of privatisation, is untenable, and that there is no going back to a past in which the public sector as a whole worked well and worked fairly in the interests of all learners, because there was no such past.  This book breaks new ground and builds on Stephen Ball’s previous work on education policy. It should appeal to those researching and studying in the fields of social policy, policy analysis, sociology of education, education research and social economics.

Education plc

Politics & Social Sciences

Ball, Stephen J. J.

Sociology

Routledge

The Micro-Politics of the School: Towards a Theory of School Organization

Stephen Ball’s micro-political theory of school organization is a radical departure from traditional theories. He rejects a prescriptive ‘top down’ approach and directly addresses the interest and concerns of teachers and current problems facing schools. In doing so he raises question about the adequacy and appropriateness of the existing forms of organizational control in schools. Through case studies and interviews with teachers, the book captures the flavour of real conflicts in schools – particularly in times of falling rolls, change of leadership or amalgamations – when teachers’ autonomy seems to be at stake.

The Micro-Politics of the School

Reference

Politics and Policy Making in Education: Explorations in Sociology

<p>Based on interviews with key actors in the policy-making process, this book maps the changes in education policy and policy making in the Thatcherite decade. The focus of the book is the 1988 Education Reform Act, its origins, purposes and effects, and it looks behind the scenes at the priorities of the politicians, civil servants and government advisers who were influential in making changes. Using direct quotations from senior civil servants and former secretaries of state it provides a fascinating insight into the way in which policy is made. The book focuses on real-life political conflicts, examining the way in which education policy was related to the ideal of society projected by Thatcherism. It looks in detail at the New Right government advisers and think tanks; the industrial lobby, addressing issues such as the National Curriculum, national testing and City Technical Colleges. The author sets these important issues within a clear theoretical framework which illuminates the whole process of policy making. </p>

Politics and Policy Making in Education

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Books by Ball, Stephen J. J.