ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the head teachers’ concerns about school autonomy and collaboration. Like many primary schools, these schools were yet to convert to academy status given that their small size and limited resourcing were not seen as conducive to effectively managing this reform. The chapter highlights the significance the head teachers placed on network arrangements that supported a sense of ownership, a common purpose, shared responsibility for students and their learning and relations of trust. It considers some of the tensions arising in this space in relation to competition, collaboration and school vulnerability. The chapter examines head teachers’ concerns about academisation and their thoughts about how their schools might be best supported amid the increasingly complex and disarticulated governance of education in England. Many view public schooling as appropriately the domain and responsibility of the state and academisation as abrogating this responsibility to non-state actors who may pursue imperatives other than educative.
