SHIFTING PARADIGMS IN THE GOVERNANCE OF EDUCATION – NEW SOLUTIONS TO OLD PROBLEMS?

Abstract

This article draws on the networking activities of a team of scholars. A key aspect of the theoretical framework is the assumption that there are changing paradigms of public sector management, and that education has been and is a site where these paradigms succeed and/or overlap with one another. As identified in research literature, these paradigms are so far: “traditional public administration”, “new public management NPM” and “public value management”. Central to the article, and the networking it refers to, is the assumption that education is as a prime arena in which the public sector of the future is being developed, and where emerging trends across the whole public sector can be detected. The article revises main paradigms that currently underpin the governance of education. Exploratory in character as it is intended to be the article argues that educational challenges demands innovative arrangements which could potentially go beyond the centrally-controlled, target-driven and accountability-heavy approaches characteristic of “New Public Management” (NPM). Drawing from the networking the article expects to raise questions and a discussion that might help developing an understanding of the tensions and trends that are currently shaping governance of education. It intends to draw attention to the ways in which these approaches face the challenge of promoting social cohesion and equity in the context of new economic and social realities.