ABSTRACT
In this chapter I draw on Foucault’s genealogical method to examine the professional turn in school governance through a study of recent and profound changes affecting the development of education policy in England since the introduction of the Academies Act 2010. The Academies Act 2010 was a watershed moment in education reform that facilitated widespread privatisation, depoliticisation and devolved management of the school system. The consequences of these reforms have produced mixed results and gains for different stakeholders and interest groups. Among the main beneficiaries are businesses set up as private limited companies who occupy the role of management groups and support services to an increasingly dense, specialised and juridified system of governance. Local communities and ordinary citizens, on the other hand, find themselves marginalised from the business of governance and its expert administration. No longer strictly participatory in design or practice, the role of school governance has shifted dramatically towards a rigid focus on ‘risk-based regulation’ to enhance upward accountability to the funders and regulators of education. This chapter examines two key features of these reforms, namely epistocracy and monopoly, and considers the challenges they pose to participatory democracy in schools.
