ABSTRACT
The chapter explores how four of the head teachers at CONNECT assumed this ‘moral agency’ and responsibility in relation to school improvement or, more accurately, ‘get[ting] higher scores’. The chapter illustrates through the voices of Andrea and four of CONNECT’s head teachers that such neoliberal responsibilisation is a crucial element in CONNECT’s effectiveness as a new modality of state power. It also explores the significance of neoliberal responsibilisation at CONNECT. The chapter focuses on the ways in which head teachers assumed ‘moral agency’ and responsibility in relation to school improvement and the ways in which the organisation worked to cultivate and reward this entrepreneurial identity. It shows that the data gathered from individual interviews with the Executive Director of CONNECT, ‘Andrea’, and four of chain’s eleven primary school head teachers, ‘Carol’, ‘Melanie’, ‘Ashleigh’ and ‘Jessica.' The non-negotiable standards and accountabilities at CONNECT seemed particularly resonant with the hyper-rationality and no excuses focus of global ‘deliverology’ approach to education reform espoused by Barber and his colleagues.
