Introduction

The governance of school education in many Western countries underwent important changes in policy and practice in the 1980s and 1990s that portended profound consequences for roles and relationships in the education system, and for educational outcomes. Controversy surrounded governments’ plans to redistribute power and influence in education systems. They hoped to engineer this by moving responsibilities nearer the school and the classroom, strengthening some decision-making arenas and weakening others, empowering parents and community groups and curbing the professionals’ control, and inserting the style and substance of modern business and financial management into the procedures of schools and the work of their staff. With varying implications in different countries and localities, the cause of educational reform disturbed the settled political and societal understandings in terms of the way in which education systems were to be governed, the nature of what was to be taught, and the criteria and manner by which results would be assessed.