Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines more closely the techniques and practices through which the state legitimates the proper conduct of school governance and carves out spaces through which the private functions of governors are enfolded and made expressive of the public ambitions of government. The idea here is to carve out analytical spaces for critiquing and problematising what we mean by school governance, and to bring into sharp focus the field of power relations that has hitherto shaped the institutional framework of school governance. An additional focus of the chapter is the complexity of accountability under the current structure, and how new forms of streamlined accountability' are under way to standardise accountability frameworks and align the work of governors more productively to fit with contract, performance and legal definitions of accountability.