ABSTRACT
A number of special committees investigated the appointment and duties of local school managers and the evidence given before them by existing school managers provides a rich store of material for illustrating contemporary attitudes towards the subject. Apart from the issues relating to the functions of managers under different school boards and in voluntary school settings, at least three other variables in the situation may be discerned which affected the representative aspect of management. The Free Education Act of 1891 had the potential to alter drastically the relationships between parents and managers. Powers of full management were granted in voluntary schools to women in some instances: in others it remained a male prerogative. In the British Schools system, especially, women were often given the full management of the school including, in many instances, financial responsibility. A less easily definable interest group in the management of elementary schools was the body described in contemporary documents as “working people”.
