ABSTRACT

Smyth (1993) has argued that, in many countries, educational bureaucracies are being replaced by devolved forms of school-based management. These reforms involve a combination of New Right ‘marketisation’, community empowerment, new forms of performance measurement and central control. While devolved management involves state withdrawal from direct intervention in the day-to-day operation of schools, in many cases this is accompanied by indirect control or management structures, allowing the state to steer the education process from a distance.