ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the current state-funded preparation of school business managers (SBMs) to take on an enhanced leadership role in English schools as a site for exploring some of the tensions inherent in school workforce reform. In so doing, it will focus on a segment of the workforce who have until recently excited little scholarly attention. New Labour school reforms aimed at maximizing value for money, and shaping England’s education provision to further international competitiveness, closely resemble market-driven, neoliberal reforms taking place in many other countries (Stevenson 2007). However, it has been argued that in England such reforms have been particularly far-reaching (Gunter and Butt 2007a), and include policies aimed at increasing teacher outputs and developing flexibility within the school workforce through a process of ‘remodelling’. A danger inherent in remodelling arises from the fact that it is ‘located within a very complex struggle over ideas and territory’ (Gunter 2007: 6) and it is such struggles that this chapter seeks to explore.
