ABSTRACT
This chapter draws particular attention to the ways in which regulators, in designing the management of education practices, specifically in schools, have exercised their power with little recourse to practical experience. It argues that regulators are more likely to turn to the language of commercial interests, global enterprises and forms of international governance in developing their frameworks that require professional compliance. In a more optimistic vein the chapter turns to two case studies that demonstrate the possibilities of innovation and resistance. We argue that while the emphasis in the chapter is upon the sites of power to develop and enforce regulation in education, it is possible to turn notions regarding invested power upon itself and ask ‘who has little power and agency in determining the directives and procedures that drive professional life in education’?
