Educational Reform: An Ironic Perspective

Wallace, Mike ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9631-9689 and Hoyle, Eric 2007. Educational Reform: An Ironic Perspective. Educational Management Administration and Leadership 35 (1) , pp. 9-25. 10.1177/1741143207071383

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Abstract

This article adopts irony as a frame for understanding some of the consequences of the reform movement in the UK. A distinction is drawn between the ironies that are endemic in all organizations and rooted in ambiguities and dilemmas, and the ironies that specifically flow from the disjunction between central policies and the contingent circumstances of individual schools. A further distinction is made between the ironies of policy and the ironies of practice, the latter characterized by the strategies used by headteachers and teachers as they adapt policy to practice and as they represent these adaptations as fulfilling accountability requirements. A case is made for principled infidelity as a component of temperate leadership and management which acts as an antidote to overwhelming policy initiatives and the excesses of managerialism to which these give rise.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management J Political Science > J General legislative and executive papers J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) > JN101 Great Britain L Education > L Education (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Compliance; irony; limits to rationality; mediation; performance; unintended consequences
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	1741-1432
Last Modified:	17 Oct 2022 09:19
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/2735

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